OC Oneshot Collection
by RedWingChris
Summary: A bunch of oneshots that involve my OC's on my profile page. Mainly focused on Lumily, Dalerie and Anthatalie, with some including others depending on plot. Will write most plots suggested, just DM or review. P.S Almost everything in these are my own, except for businesses, shows, movies, real people, etc. that may be listed. Will be updated, despite listing as Completed.
1. Q and A

Hi everyone! So this is a collection of one shots based on my OC's. All of them could possibly be updated, so if you're interested follow the story to get updates on when chapters are updated.

To Lucas:

Last Picture You Took With Your Phone?

"Me in my school spirit stuff." L

Anyone with you?

"Nope. I was all alone." L

"No you weren't! I was there with you!" Emily

"You were?" L

"Um... Yeah?" E

"Oh, I don't remember that." L

"Yeah, just like you don't remember the time you took my hair tie of your favorite color and gave it back the next day because you forgot it was mine?" E

"No, I did that on purpose," L

"Why? Because you like that color hair tie? What did you even do with it?" E

"I looked at it. It's a nice color, and I like when you wear it so I wanted to know what was so special about it. I guess it must have been you," L, E blushes at the compliment.

To Emily:

What was the last lie you told?

"Hm... How much sleep I got this morning. I only got 7 hours, not 8." E

"She doesn't like to lie a lot..." V

"Really, what about L-" D

"Shut Up!" E

"What about what?" L

"Nothing! Next!" E

To Danny:

Weirdest prank you've ever pulled on someone here?

"Wow. It's been a while, but a couple years ago I set up a trap at Val's house, and she totally bought it. It was funny, but I felt kinda bad about it." D

"Which one was that? The one that kept making me trip?" V

"Yeah... You remember that?" D

"Uh huh. I was kinda surprised you would do something like that." V.

"Why? I mean I am kind of surprise heavy..." D

"Yeah. I noticed. Maybe I could find out more of your surprises if you talked to me more," V

"Nah, not yet. I'm not ready," D

"Ready for what? To talk to me? You have known me kind of for five years! You talk to Emily and Natalie all the time too, so it's obviously not a girl thing!" V

"Eh... It's another surprise I have. I just can't tell you yet. I will sometime. Next?" D

"Surprise, surprise, of course it's another surprise..." V

To Valerie:

What is your greatest strength and weakness?

"Strength? I'm very reliable. Weakness... Hmm... I'm perfectionistic." V

"That's surprising," D V looks at him annoyed as she twiddles her thumbs.

To Anthony:

This is an odd question, but what is your favorite Pizza Topping?

"Okay then, um... I'm going to say Pineapple. It's kinda sweet, and it tastes good." A

"Pineapple is good stuff, I agree. I thought I was the only one who got Hawaiian pizza?" L

"Nope. I have been for a while too. I love it with the ham!" A

To Natalie:

What was the first thing you thought about this morning.

"Food. Definitely food. I get hungry when I wake up because I eat dinner early." N

"Don't we all? I don't know anyone who doesn't think about food or water when they first get up. It's like a human... Wiring thing or something," V

Second Cycle:

Lucas- If you could lock anyone in a room for a day under any circumstance other than killing them, who would it be and what would you do to them?

"It would probably be Valerie, and I'd probably try many different tactics to see who she likes." Val and Emily stare at him.

"Why not Emily?" V

"Too much work, plus I know I wouldn't have a chance at getting it out of her." L

"Too much work? Val would be easier for you?" E

"Easier than you yes, especially because I already have a guess who it is." L

"Well don't say it. Let's move on." V

Em: If you could witness anything in history past, present or future, what would you go see?

"Good question. I definitely would have liked to have seen the Women's Suffrage movement in action, but on a more unbiased note, I'd be pretty happy with seeing what my greatest impact on the world is going to be in my own life." E

"Deep, Em. Not surprised." N

"I wonder why people assume those who do not have the right to vote suffer. Does that mean all kids are suffering? Of course not!" D V looks at him weird.

Valerie- If you woke up tomorrow and switched bodies with someone else of your choosing, who would it be, and what would you make them do?

"Do I have their feelings, or mine still?" V

I suppose you'd have their feelings...

"Then I'd be Danny and force him to ask whoever his crush is out." Danny blushes

"Why would you make me do that? How would that benefit you?" D, Val gets aggravated so we go to the next question.

Anthony- What question do you hate answering the most?

"Wow. Okay, well I have 2. First, do you have homework. Second, who's your crush. If I wanted you to know, I would've told you by now. Also, it's nobodies business what I have homework in mom!" A

"No kidding." "Thank you!" "Truth!" Was heard throughout the room.

Danny- How do you start a conversation both with someone new and with someone you're already friends with?

"New, I say Hi, I'm Danny and something else like a complement. Friend, I say What's up and their name." D

"Remember when you first met me? I thought you liked me till I learned who it really was." N

"Yes, I remember, and I don't think I was that bad was I? Also, how do you know?" D

"The same way baseball reporters know the baseball news." N

"Haha! Fake sources who are not close with the situation?" A

"Yup. Those fools annoy me." N Time to change topics.

Natalie- What keyboard key do you use the least?

"Z. It's in so few words, it's in the bottom left corner of the keyboard, and buzzing drives me absolutely crazy, and whenever I hear a Z sound it makes me think of that." N

"So like when someone goes-" A

"Anthony! Don't. Do. It." N

"Fine." A, N smiles.

Alright, 3rd cycle:

Lucas: If you could ask anyone for advice, who would it be?

"Depends. What type of advice, and I'm assuming it's people in this room?" L

Whatever kind of advice you need most. Also, preferably, yes.

"Then that's school advice, which is mostly Emily and Danny." L

Why not Anthony or Valerie or Natalie?

"I have my reasons. It depends on what subject too. Anthony just happens to be good at what I'm good at, so I don't really need help from him that much." L

Em: What is the most memorable thing that's happened to you that you can't really explain?

"Well there's a lot. Getting a crush, moving, my obsession with clocks. School does so many things to you too. I could go on and on. I'll stop.

Valerie: What is one thought that constantly makes you sad every time you think about it?

"Haha, Val that's easy for you." N.

"Yes, it is. Whenever my crush doesn't talk to me it gets disappointing." V

Anthony: Which do you use more often- Dictionary, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, or old time informational writings from thousands or hundreds of years ago?

"Encyclopedia. Online Encyclopedias are the best! I never use a dictionary, I have a pretty extensive vocabulary already and thesaurus's are pointless nowadays." A

Danny: Have you ever been stung or bitten by a creature?

"Hahaha! Oh that's funny. I like this question." L

"Oh gosh... I thought we forgot about that?" D

"Nope. We still remember. Val were you there at the zoo?" E

"No, I don't think so..?" V

"Okay, so what happened was we were all going to the-" E

"Nope. Don't tell it." D

"Why not?" E

"What happens at the zoo stays in the zoo." D

"I believe that's only true in Las Vegas. Not here." E

"Ugh. Just don't tell. It was so long ago..." D

"Really, okay. Then you can't tell anyone about... About... Aha! The snowman." E

"Okay. Just don't say anything about the zoo." D

"Was it really that bad for you both?" V

"Yes." E and D

Natalie:

What is your favorite commercial?

"Anything that sells something other than drugs or politics or beer. I like car commercials the best. Especially because most companies are different from each other."

"You like food commercials? Don't they make you hungry?" A

"I'm hungry all the time. It doesn't effect me," The other two girls just laugh.

Fourth Time:

Lucas- One activity you like that most people here don't know about.

"Running. I've always been into running like 5K's and stuff. Keeps me active."

"Really? You do the charity ones, or..." V

"Yeah, pretty much. I'm planning on helping out with the school LHS5K next year," L

"Fun! I've heard good things about them!" N

"So have I," L

Alright, Emily: One person, one place in the world.

"Oh gosh. One question that sucks to be asked on the spot. Alive, dead or either?" E

Alive in this century, so if they died someone after 2000

"Then that's easy. My mom. I'd love her to see where Christina and I live," E

"Good answer. I'm surprised you didn't just say her?" N

"I would have if my dead people didn't count," E

Val: Favorite male Disney sitcom character?

"Bertram from Jessie. Oh my goodness the fat jokes are so funny!" V

"Not some hot teen guy?" D

"Heck no! No use worrying about them when you'll never meet them," V

Danny: Favorite female Disney sitcom actress?

"Actress? Oh goodness. Rowan Blanchard. She's my celebrity crush. Of course, I have a real one that separate, but, my celeb crush is obviously Rowan," D

"Really? Not Sabrina?" L

"You watch that show too?" D

"Of course I do! Sabrina is awesome! Best Disney talent in years," L

"Next question please?" E

Natalie: Favorite motto.

"I have two. First, Hakuna Matata. Second, Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you'll land amongst the stars," N

"Nice choices. I remember that poster," E, N smiles.

Anthony: Funniest TV episode ever?

"Oh my goodness. Easy! Mommy and the Swami of Suite Life On Deck! OH MY GOODNESS I still go back and rewatch that episode. Mr. Moseby on the phone? L.O.L!" A

"Yeah, that was a good episode. Great show too," V

"I wonder why so many people gave up before On Deck even started, they missed out!" N


	2. Future Fic Plot 1

Lucas and Emily had been together since Middle School. Well, that's not true. They had known and liked each other since Middle School. Then, they snapped their fingers and Lucas had gotten a job as one of the techs for Jim Cantore and Emily had become a relatively well known member in the artistic circle. Her use of colors has gotten a lot of attention, and while her objects are somewhat generic, her creativity shines when she changes the color of something natural or uses it in a place you may not find it. Lucas's favorite drawing she had done was of a Volcano with grassy green lava, and all kinds of people acting clueless about the phenomena. Now the two had somehow had kids and while they enjoy their lives, they NEVER thought they could be that busy. They still see their best friends a lot too, just like old times.

"Hey, how was your day?" Emily asked her husband Lucas when he got home.

"It went well. You and the kids doing alright?" He asked.

"Well, they are almost exact opposites. Caitlin is doing really well, and I saw her review guide, and she did everything right. Ryan, well... Let's just say he's being a boy. He's like you when you were a kid." Lucas laughed at the reference to himself.

"What's he doing bad at? Have you tried helping him?" He asked.

"Well, he's doing great with the science, but he's a little behind in history. He's one of those people that doesn't think it matters because we are in the present not the past."

"Alright, what unit is he on, did he tell you?" He asked sighing.

"Well, judging by where they should be, my guess would be around the Industrial Revolution. I'm guessing he doesn't understand why it should matter to him. He is only in 8th grade."

"Have you tried asking Caitlin to help him?" He asked.

"She's already got all her work done though, that would be unfair. Plus, knowing her she would just write everything down for him after she got frustrated he didn't know anything. Also, he's a little late on the whole liking girls thing. Getting help from his sister I think would embarrass him." Lucas didn't understand kids anymore. They weren't like his generation.

"Should I still ask her? I wouldn't ask Ryan, I'd just force him to work with her if she would be okay with it." Emily shrugged in a whatever you want kind of way.

"Caitlin? Would you be okay helping your brother out with school stuff?" L asked her

"Maybe, it depends. What subject?"

"History. Industrial Revolution." L informed her

"Oh... Yikes. That was hard. Alright, sure. When do we start?"

"Probably tomorrow, unless mom is desperate and says today."

"Alright, just let me know." She responded. Lucas was happy.

"Thanks. Love you" Lucas told her, and left her room.

"So, how'd it go?" E asked L

"Well, she said it was hard for her, so it's okay." L

"No bribing, no convincing, no... Nothing?" E

"Nothing. All she asked was when do we start and I told her I think tomorrow, and she said great, just let me know." L

"Interesting. Ryan still needs today's assignment done though... Can you help him?" E

"Alright, do you know where he is?" L

"Probably in his room doing something fun and ignoring his schoolwork." E

"And... You know this? Not saying anything?" L

"Nah, if I say too much he will just get annoyed and will become antagonistic. Don't need anyone being rebellious around here." I guess some things don't change from generation to generation. At least I somehow found time for homework and Em.

"Okay, so what do I say? I don't know these things yet." Emily laughs

"Just ask him if he did his homework, if he says yes, ask him to show it to you, you check it, and base your actions from there. If he says no ask him if he needs help, base your actions off that. Good Luck!" E

"Hey, how'd your homework go today?" L

"Most of it was pretty easy, but this Industry Revolt thing is kind of difficult." Ryan said

"Okay, well do you need any help with today's assignment?" L

"I already finished it, but you can check it if you want to. It's right here." Ryan gave his dad his assignment.

"Okay, most of this makes sense, but one thing I do remember is that the Industrial Revolution started in England, then came to the United States." L

"Alright, thanks! Anything else?" R

"Your sister said she would help with tomorrow's lesson, because she knows a lot more about this kind of thing than your mom and I do." L

"Alright, sounds good. Dinner anytime soon?" R

"Not sure, I'll have to ask mom. Are you hungry?" L

"Not really, just wanted to know." R

"It won't be anytime real soon, at least an hour or so probably." L

"Okay, thanks for helping!" R

"Yup. Have fun." L

"Okay, so how'd that go?" E

"Good. He's good with his sister helping him, he told me to look at his sheet and not knowing a lot I just went with the fact he got it done and corrected what I did know, and that's pretty much it." L

"How do you do so good with that? If I were to tell him Caitlin was helping him he'd freak!" E

"Well, he could be right now, and he has no reason to. He probably just prefers help from us instead of her. Could just be luck too, or a boy thing. Who knows." L

"Well it worked. Thank you." E kisses him.

"Welcome. So, what time is dinner?" L

"Should be ready in about an hour or so. Timer is on the island if you want to be specific." E

"Alright, good. Gives me some time to relax a little, and not fall asleep." L

"Haha, yup. If you want or need anything let me know." E

"Okay, thanks. I'll probably just go read some things or watch TV." L

Emily continues drawing her newest picture, some sun colored grass, with a sky blue moon and some green stars in a Black Sky. It looks a little weird to her, but she seems to like it anyways as it turned out without any mistakes or marks, and she put it with the rest of her pieces to dry, also where the kids can't get them and mess them up.

Lucas meanwhile, just relaxed and enjoyed being home and sitting down. It was a quiet hurricane year, tornado season has ended and the snow hadn't started yet. The main weather news to report was that it was cold, so he didn't have that much on his plate, which was nice for him. He changed the channel to the Weather Channel and found some of the footage he recorded of a storm the year before and watched that again.

"Hey, dad, what was your freshman year like?" Caitlin asked Lucas quite randomly.

"Well, different than yours. Anything in particular? Boy problems?" L

"Haha, not quite, I'm talking just stress level. Homework, friends, relationship pressure sure if you want to put it like that, just, everything." C

"Well, Homework was a little rough, but I got used to it. I always hated Language Arts, so that class was rough for me. My transcript doesn't show the full story in there, but Science was great, math wasn't too bad and History was fun, I had a great teacher in there." L

"Oh. What about everything else?" C

"Well, Danny and Anthony have been my friends since Middle School and they were my best friends in High School too. The only time we weren't together was college, but we all met up again after and kept in contact." L

"So is that why I'm good friends with their kids too?" C

"Could be. As for boy problems, well, I can go on about that. Your mom told me a lot about what I did wrong in High School." They both laughed.

"So, even though it's not that big of a deal, any advice?" C

"Well, if you like somebody, find the middle ground between doing nothing and doing too much. It changes from person to person, but you can tell pretty easy which way you're going. Also, give him some space and time. I'm sure he doesn't like talking about girls in front of his parents, look at Ryan." She smiled.

"Thanks. I just wanted to talk a little. I don't know that much about you which is quite sad." Caitlin said. Lucas and Emily didn't tell their kids much about themselves. They just didn't think it was that important. It was more important for the kids to learn about themselves.

Then, the home phone went off (yes, they will still have those).

"Hi, who'd I get?" Emily's older sister asked.

"Hey Christina, it's Lucas. What's up?"

"Well, Emily didn't answer her phone, so I figured I'd try the home one. What have you guys been up to lately?" C

"Well, Em is painting some new pictures and I'm still doing weather stuff. Luckily it's been a boring year, not much to report on." L

"Interesting. That's nice. How are Caitlin and Ryan?" C

"They're doing pretty good from what they're telling me, but with teenagers, who knows. They seem good though. No major problems." L

"Great! So, anyways, I just wanted to talk to Emily about maybe having a girls night. Me, her, Natalie and Valerie. That okay with you?" C

"Yeah, sounds great. I think she could use some fun. I'll let her know when I see her at dinner and she can call you back and talk about times, unless you have one already." L

"Not yet, I still need to call Natalie and Valerie, but it would probably be on Saturday judging by Valerie's work schedule." C

"Natalie not working a lot lately?" L

"Oh, she is, but she only works during the day. She's back on the 7-3 shift (in Fashion) and Val works more varying hours, of course with her being a teacher it depends on what she assigns, but I can tell her to not assign anything due Friday." C

"Alright, great! Yeah, just let her or me know what's up and one of us will get back to you later on that." L

"Okay, thanks and I'll talk to you again soon. Bye!" C

"See ya!" L and they both hang up. Now Lucas's phone buzzes, indicating a text.

"Wow, popular today." He looks at his phone. It's from his Sister.

"Hey Lucas! Quick kid Q, what do you do when you have a daughter with boy problems? Don't know if you'd know or not with Caitlin." Anastasia messaged.

"Well, I'd say talk from experience, use examples and situations that happened in real life, and never say there's no chance. That's the worst thing to say." L

"Alright, I just didn't expect this coming from MY 6th grade daughter. Time is weird." A

"Yes, yes it is. Good Luck and if you need anything let me know. Also, I'd say talk to Dylan about it too." L

"Alright thanks! TTYL" A

"Okay, now... What's up in Sports..." L Gets out iPad, goes on Twitter to look for sports info.

"Woah... That's crazy." L

"Hey, Em? There's some reliable media people saying Danny got traded to Tampa." L

"Tell me this again, except in a way I understand what happened." E

"Danny is moving to Tampa Bay. He's changing teams." L

"Oh, so that's good right?" E

"Mostly. Not great for their kids who have to change schools, but good for everyone else." L

"How, I just need help understanding this." E

"Good for all of his friends because we see him and Val more because they will be closer. Good for Valerie because she's closer to the school she teaches at, good for Danny because Tampa is good and it gives him some security, they'd want him back for sure." L

"Oh. Okay then. Then that's nice! Speaking of Val I haven't seen her in a while..." E

"Yeah, Christina called and said she wanted you, her, Val and Natalie to have some fun some time. Probably Saturday afternoon or evening." L

"Alright, sounds good. Just so that you watch the kids. Oh, and see if you can get Caitlin to go see Ethan for me." E

"Ethan? Anthony's son? When and Why? Is something going on?" L

"Haha! Still oblivious aren't you? You don't see it?" E

"No, not really... I never see them talking..." L

"Exactly. Caitlin is secretive about this stuff. She's more like you. Doesn't like making things public with anyone, especially us or him. The only ones that know are Riley, Isabelle and maybe Claire." E

"So, might that be who she was asking me for advice about?" L

"If it was boy advice, yes. It would have been. Has Ryan asked you about Girls yet?" E

"Nope. I can at least see this one though. He's kind of like you. More than me." L

"Huh? I don't get it. Did I miss something?" E

"Guess so. The only problem is I can't tell if she likes him back." L

"Who doesn't like who back? You sound like your in Middle School." Caitlin enters.

"Your dad seems to think Ryan likes someone." E

"Eh, it wouldn't surprise me. Don't know who it would be though. He is an 8th grade boy though. Can't rule anything out with them. You got lucky with Ryan. Other 8th grade boys are a pain." C

"What makes you say that? I wasn't that bad in 8th grade..." E hits his arm.

"Ow! I couldn't have been!" L

"You were. Anyways, back to you. Something having to do with a boy you liked?" E

"Other way around. Every single 8th grader, regardless of if I knew them or not liked me. Some more than others of course, except for Ethan and Jacob of course. I had to try to get people not to like me last year. That was hard." C

"So what did you do about the boy you actually liked?" E

"Who? What do you mean?" C

"Caitlin, I know you liked and still like someone. There's no problem. You can talk to us about anything." E

"Wait, I do? How can you tell if you like someone or not? I don't know anything about this stuff..." C

"It's alright. First, do you look at him a lot. Even for no reason." L

"How do you know that trick?" E

"I did the same thing." Lucas blocked Emily from hitting his arm and stuck his tongue out.

"Well, I guess... I mean... Maybe? I don't know. I don't think about those things." C

"Okay, how about are you nervous to talk to him? About anything." E

"Nope. He's been my friend for a while, I'm used to getting around what I feel. Especially when it comes to stuff I know he won't change his mind on." C

"What about... Digital communication. Does he text, call or IM you a lot?" E

"Yeah, especially about homework. He knows I'm good at math so he asks me all kinds of math questions because he's not good at it." C

"Does he ever talk to any girls other than your best friends around you?" L

"I don't know how that matters, but no. He could be, but around me only Isabelle and Riley."

"I did the same thing when I was younger. Boys don't want you to think there are more important girls out there than you. It's good he doesn't talk to other girls around you." L

"Okay, then. Next?" C

"Do you do a lot of teamwork or projects together?" E

"Nope. He always ends up in a group with Jacob. I wish!" C

"Has he ever let you in his room?" L

"Why? Mom?" C

"No comment, that's legit." E

"Okay then, uh yeah he did once." C

"Only once? Was it messy?" E

"Yup. Just once, and no, it was clean...?" C

"That's it. Hold on a sec." E

"Yes from you?" L whispers

"Agree?" E. L nods

"Yeah, you like him, and it's probably mutual. Good luck." L

"I have to agree. Even just by the project response, that sold it." E

"So, what do I do about it?" C

"A bunch of things. First, tell him. Second, get over it. Third, keep it a secret that will haunt your dreams. Fourth, well, drop hints you like him and try and trick him into telling you first." L

"It works. That's what happened with your dad. Try that. Don't come straight forward, just say something like I like your hair or shirt or something. If you actually do. Don't fake it." E

"Is that it?" C

"Yeah, what else do you expect?" L

"I don't know... I guess I just feel like I need all the help I can get," C

"There's some things we won't be able to help you with, and some we really don't want to help you with because you need to be able to do it yourself. You probably don't really want our help much anyways," E

"It is kinda nice go hear how your parents got together though," C

"She tricked me!" L

"Which time?" E

"You admit it?" L

"Once, yes," E

"You got together then broke up then got back together?" C

"No, he was just really slow. He was afraid I was going to take away his freedom or something like that. I'm not that bad now, am I?" E

"Love you!" L said as he ran away from his wife and daughter who had different reactions. Caitlin felt like laughing while Emily eye rolled and shook her head at her husband.

"Just wait ten years and you'll get it," E, C blushes, secretly hoping ten years zooms by.


	3. Dares and Truths 1 and 2 Seperate

"Lucas, I dare you to talk to... Her," Danny told him. It was their first day of school, and the three boys were making new friends for the upcoming school year.

"Why a girl? I don't need to talk to girls!" Lucas responded. He wasn't a very social person.

"Uh, yeah you do. You're lucky I'm making you talk to her, and not someone else!" Lucas looked quite nervous once Danny said that.

"Come on! She's actually cute. That's not fair!" Lucas responded.

"Fine. I'll be right back then," Anthony said. He walked over to the girl, and Lucas ended up losing the dare.

"Hey, I'm Anthony. Are you in this class?" Anthony asked the girl.

"I'm Emily, and yeah, that's why I'm sitting here..." She responded.

"You see those two boys? I was trying to get Lucas, the dark blonde haired one to talk to you. He said you were kind of cute," Anthony said.

"That's too classic. I'm too old to fall for that one, but thanks anyways!" Emily said going back to her book.

"No, I'm not kidding! Go talk to him. You might like him," Anthony said.

"You're not kidding, really?" Emily said. "It's not just you saying that?" She looked up from her book with an almost annoyed look.

"No! Not just me!" Anthony responded. So she set down her book and walked over to Lucas and Danny.

"Are you Lucas?" She asked Danny, first.

"Nope, he is," Danny responded. Emily gave him an are-you-sure look, and then went towards Lucas, who was already in his seat.

"So, you're Lucas?" Emily asked him.

"Yeah... Did Anthony tell you?" He asked her.

"Yeah. He called me cute. Well, he said you did. I told him I didn't believe it so he said to talk to you," he said.

"Of course. So... Is that why you came over here or..." He said confused.

"Wait, so you don't think so either?" She said, instantly a little smile appeared on her face.

"I think I'm supposed to say yes, so... Yeah. I do," Emily laughed a little.

"You don't know my name yet. I'm Emily. Nice to meet you," She said. She smiled a little bit.

"Nice to meet you too," He said back.

"You seem a little confused about something," Emily noticed.

"Yeah, you just seemed a little tense around the other two, but not me..." He said.

"You're observant. I like that! Yeah, I just have trust issues. I have a problem believing someone once they tell me something that's not true," Lucas was a little confused.

"Wait, I thought all Anthony told you was that you were cute?" Lucas said.

"Yeah, I'm really not. I have a self esteem issue too," She said.

"Wait, so why did you trust me then?" He asked.

"You didn't just come out and say it. You were a little scared and nervous and afraid and such. Then there's the fact you didn't come up to me like Anthony just did. Makes you seem more trustworthy," Lucas was a little surprised, but went with it.

"Oh. Well if it means anything," she cut him off.

"Please don't ruin it. I actually kind of like you a little," Emily told him smiling a little. Lucas looked baffled, but just played along.

"Well, okay then... I hope to see you again some time?" She smiled.

"First time someone's said that to me. You're sweet. Call or text me sometime, I'll put my number in your phone," Emily then gave Lucas her number, and he gave her his. Lucas was just confused how girls think, while Emily was more surprised that a boy finally actually understood her and wasn't trying to hard. It showed confidence to her.

Dares and Truths 2:

"Em! Go for it! He might be too scared to talk to you!" Natalie told Emily. They were talking about the new boy, Lucas.

"Why me? Why don't you guys talk to him?" Em asked back.

"We already have crushes! You know that! Sounds like you're a little scared to talk to him too! I think we might have finally found someone!" Valerie responded.

"Guys aren't my thing, you know that!" Em said.

"That's why we want you to have one. It might change your mind," Natalie said.

"You know I don't like new things. That's your thing Natalie," Emily said.

"Well, if you want him to like you back you have to talk to him!" Valerie said.

"Who said I like him!" Emily said.

"You! You don't even want to talk to the boy! You must be in love, Em!" Natalie said.

"Am not!" Emily argued.

"The fact that you're arguing about it gives it more credibility!" Valerie said.

"I don't, and that's final. I'm fine being all alone with you two. That's all I need to make me happy in my life," Emily said.

"Whatever you say, although I think you're going to regret this," Valerie said.

"If he wants to talk to me, he will. Until then, I'm sure he has other friends that can help him. Or you can, I don't care," Valerie and Natalie looked at each other, and smirked largely. It freaked Emily out, who just ran.

"Let's do it!" Valerie said.

"You sure? He might judge her by us? You have that much confidence?" Natalie asked.

"Oh, come on! You're sounding like Emily! Let's go!" Valerie said. Natalie just shrugged while Emily watched them.

"Hey, I heard you're new here," Natalie said. Lucas was a little surprised that two random girls would just walk up to him. He'd describe them as pretty cute.

"Yeah, that'd be me. I'm Lucas. You two?" He asked, not very afraid.

"I'm Natalie and that's Valerie," Natalie said.

"Hey! Oh, and who's that looking at us? It's... A little weird," Lucas said.

"Emily? What's she doing here? She said she was a little scared to talk to you. She doesn't exactly like change," Valerie said.

"Emily, huh? I'll have to remember that. Anyways, do you guys have room at your lunch table for another person?" Lucas asked.

"For you? Haha, of course! Table 19. Back right corner by the chicken stand, I'll see you there," Valerie said smiling. Lucas smiled too, while going back to writing something down on a piece of paper. Natalie wrote down the three girls phone numbers, left the note on Lucas's desk. He noticed as she walked away, smiled at her, and she winked back at him. What surprised Lucas was it wasn't Natalie he liked, despite her boldness. It was Emily that he thinks he seemed to like. He liked her shyness, and the fact that she was a little scared of him appealed to him. He was the new kid, and he had to get her to like him, whereas it seemed like these two were the opposite. Of course, he knew nothing of the plan, but still. He put the three girls numbers in his phone. He was a little surprised when he noticed all three of their names ended with an e vowel sound, but ignored it, instead paying more attention to the heart that was used to dot Emily's 'I' but not Valerie or Natalie's. Lucas, being the oblivious one he is, made nothing of it and thought that Natalie did it as a joke, thinking he might have liked her because he asked about her.

"Hey, we saw you talking to those two girls. What'd they tell you?" A bigger boy wearing a varsity jacket said. The name was Anthony.

"Uh, not much. They just introduced themselves to me. I don't know why me, I found it odd," Lucas said a little scared.

"You got their numbers? How? Did you ever think they might have boyfriends already?" Lucas suddenly felt a little disappointed at the thought that they might be taken. It was really the last thing on his mind.

"It wouldn't surprise me. Are you guys dating them or something?" Lucas asked.

"Not yet, unfortunately. Let me see that for a second..." A boy named Danny said. "Do you like Emily?" Danny asked.

"No, I haven't even seen her for more than a second, they just mentioned her as one of their friends," Lucas responded.

"You don't like Natalie or Val do you?" Lucas understood where they were going.

"No! Haha! Not really my thing. I'm not really a girls type of guy anyways. Don't worry, I won't threaten either of you guys," both boys looked confused.

"Uh, threaten us with what?" Anthony asked.

"Uh, threaten your crushes. Guys, I know you like Natalie and Valerie. It's obvious enough you didn't even have to tell me. Don't worry, like I said. They're not for me, in fact, I think we are going to be good friends soon, I'm sitting at your guys table for lunch," the boys then both smiled.

"Good. I'd like to get to know you. You seem like Em's type anyways," Danny said. "Just don't get your hopes up. She's the same way you are. Not into guys, could care less about romance, all that jazz. More the friend zone type. Go for it, it's worth it," He finished before leaving. Lucas thought about what Danny had said. Did he like Emily? He couldn't. He was the new kid and she didn't even want to talk to him. He quickly frowned, before going back to his story and writing it.

"Em! You are so perfect for the new kid! I didn't even think it was real!" Danny said.

"Not you guys... Ugh... Why does everyone think that! How many times-" Anthony cut her off.

"That's just it! He doesn't either! It's perfect! You're both the odd two out!" Emily just let out a frustrated sigh.

"That makes us even less better! Dumbos. You need a romance genius to be with each of us then. Not the same thing!" Good luck with that!" Em said sarcastically waving.

"I think she likes him back," Anthony said.

"Ya THINK?!" Natalie said, walking up to the pair with Valerie. "Emily is nuts! It's like she turned into a flipping clam with a pearl that has mastered the art of Jiu-Jitsu!" Natalie added.

"Uh, elaborate?" Anthony said confused.

"Yes she likes him you watermelon!" Natalie responded calling her own crush a name.

"Natalie is sorry. Anyways, we have got to find a way to get these two freaks together. It might take some acting, but we all have good experience with that, so no worries, alright?" Valerie said to the group. They all agreed.

"First part of the plan is that we have to get them to sit next to each other at lunch. Or across from each other, whatever works best," both boys said across.

"Fine, you know boys better than I do. Anyways, get them across from each other, and get them talking. Once they talk they will instantly connect, like each other, and then be done with them forever. Okay?" Natalie continued.

"Uh, Natalie, one problem, neither of them will go for this. They'll both know it's a set up," Danny said.

"Not if you both tell them it is then they won't!" Natalie responded.

"Unfortunately, Danny is right, Natalie. Lucas will know as soon as he sees her, just because he's a guy, and to get Emily to do anything she would find out eventually," Valerie replied.

"That's the point. They're going to bond over us setting them up!" All three of them then go ahh... Natalie just face palms and elects to call them all robots.

"Hey Em, we are changing things up this year. We are both sitting across from our crushes meaning your across from Lucas!" Valerie just got right to the point.

"I. Don't. Like. Lucas!" Emily replies.

"How do you know?" Valerie replies.

"I don't know anything about him!" Em responds.

"Exactly! That's why you're sitting across from him. Unless next to him-" Natalie got cut off.

"No! We are sitting in two L's. Danny, Lucas, Anthony from top to bottom left, and you, me, and Val from bottom to top left. That's final!" Em said authoritatively.

"What if we say no to that?" Valerie argues.

"You can't. We are changing to a dictatorship. It's the same method the boys run. I'm first, Natalie second, you last. That way it goes in alphabetical order and matches you two with your crushes. This year is going to Lucas, then they go Anthony, Danny so it works out fair and well." Emily said, "My first act as Dictator of the year, is to adopt the two L principal, which is happening. I already told the guys. Sorry, I am not talking to Lucas yet.

"Yet! Haha! Yet! You will. You are going to have to! This is fantastic! I love it!" Natalie said.

"I will have to eventually, whether it be a group project, or because you guys are friends or whatever, but not until he finds a girlfriend," Em finished.

"Speaking of, Danny just sent me a text, guess he had a girlfriend back in Seattle where he's from, but they couldn't do long distance. That sucks!" Valerie said. Emily instantly cheered up a little bit, much to the girls surprise.

"Em, why are you so cheery?! You're acting like that Ice Age squirrel that finally caught the nut! What happened?" Natalie said. Emily tries to make something up.

"Well, the fact that he has had a girlfriend before is a good thing. It means that the girls here might like him more knowing he's got experience right? If he gets another girlfriend, that means you guys will be off my back on him," Emily tried.

"Em, give it up! Lose the act, let the fish out of the bag, whatever, just call uncle. We know you like the boy, and that's perfectly acceptable," Valerie said.

"You have no proof! I don't like Lucas! In fact, his name is starting to irritate me and I haven't even talked to the guy yet. That's not good!" Emily flipped. The other two girls kept pushing, knowing they were cracking Emily.

"How would you know then?" Valerie asked. "That you don't like him,"

"The fact that you are trying too hard to set me up with him is extremely turn offish. Second, let's give up on the talking argument. That goes both ways and doesn't help either of us. Third, the guys freaking cute. I don't want to talk to him one day because I might like him and then hate him when he doesn't like me back, and I don't want to be mean. Then there's the opposite of that which is even worse, and-"

"Emily, shut up!" Natalie said in a teasing way.

"No! I still have 90 something more left!" Emily replied.

"You came up with a list of 99 reasons why you don't like said boy in 4 hours? That's 25 per hour. That's one every two minutes. To prove why you don't like someone?! Do you love the boy?! Dang!" Natalie replied.

"Yes. I did come up with a Christmas list worth of reasons because I don't and won't, like him. He's not for me!" Emily pleaded.

"How many times did you write any form of you not wanting, needing or being ready for a relationship? 75?" Valerie asked.

"83." Emily responded. The girls just smiled.

"Aw! You even counted for him, that's cute," Val tried.

"No it's not. I did that because I'm very lawyer like and am not showing any emotions in this case," Emily explained. The girls then noticed their crushes were sitting down, in the wrong spots. They quickly ran towards the seats and set Emily up perfect. The two girls were across from each other on the left side, next to their crushes, who were across from each other in the middle. Lucas would be sitting next to Danny, meaning Emily would be right across from him. Emily was surrounded by the three guys, while the two girls were next to their crushes, which made the four pretty happy they pulled it off.

"This isn't the right seating chart! You're all in the wrong spots!" Emily cried feeling betrayed. The girls just laughed at her, leaving Emily to be separated from the pair.

"We aren't moving, and I'm sure they aren't moving any time soon either. I mean, I don't see what's wrong with us," Anthony said.

"You're both supposed to be sitting across from your crushes in the L shape, with Me and Lucas as the hinges in opposite corners!" Emily complained while the guys laughed.

"You think we are letting Lucas off that easy? Never. I don't exactly feel bad for you either. If you don't feel like talking to him, just eat your lunch and go somewhere else," Danny said.

"You could have put him in the girl corner if he was your main target!" Emily tried.

"We decided to go easy on the kid. I mean, he might not be comfortable being around a bunch of girls in a new school after just getting out of a relationship. I'd hate to pressure him into that type of harming environment any time soon. You at least know us and are our friends. We can't bite, right?" Anthony replied.

"Don't know if he can!" Emily responded.

"I'm sure he doesn't. He seems to be the shy type. Em, just enjoy this, I mean, what's the worst thing that can happen," Danny said.

"The worst thing that can happen is he can't get over his old girlfriend, I start to like him but he doesn't like me back because he's not ready for another relationship and I stay single my whole darn life because I liked someone in my freshman year of high school," Emily explained like she had it all planned out.

"Can you give me a crystal ball? I could use it," Danny said. Anthony added something similar, before Lucas finally found the table Valerie was referring to earlier.

"Oh, okay... This works I guess," Lucas said when he saw the different table arrangement than he was previously told to expect. Lucas ended up talking to Danny and Anthony about all kinds of guy stuff that Emily could care less about, so she just sat there and are her lunch like she was still in class away from her friends taking a test.

"You haven't talked yet, what's up with you?" Lucas suddenly asked Emily. The whole group suddenly went silent. Emily just said she's been eating, which everyone but Lucas knew was a pathetic excuse, because she would always talk whenever she wasn't eating something. She had yet to look up even, and was in her own dreamland of sorts.

"Em, what do you think of the food?" Danny asked her trying to get a normal response out of her. Of course, it didn't work..

"Same as last year," Emily said coldly and blandly. Danny looked... Confused almost.

"You playing any more sports this year for the school?" Anthony asked, trying to start a conversation with her Lucas could continue.

"Don't know yet," Emily said, leaving even Anthony frustrated. Emily felt like she was on a blind date with someone she didn't want to like but did, Lucas felt like he would rather talk to her alone instead of under all the peer pressure, which is why he hadn't talked to her yet, while the other four thought their ambitious idea maybe took them in over their heads. The two boys then decided to join their crushes conversations next to them to see if that would do anything. All it did was make Lucas more nervous, and the two ate silently, not talking to each other at all during lunch.

"I'll give you a penny every time you say a word to him," Anthony said.

"Dime. They're smaller," Emily said.

"Deal, as long as we witness it," Anthony replied. The girls had the same talk with Lucas, and when school was over, they forced them to sit next to each other on the bus.

"Are they paying you to talk to me to?" Lucas asked her.

"Yeah, they are. A dime for every word. I mean, I guess that makes it worth it, right?"

"Yeah, especially considering by the time I'm done talking I will have made almost three dollars," Lucas replied.

"Not bad for talking, as long as they give it to us!" Emily looked back at Valerie and Danny, who shook their heads.

"Here's a five, Lucas," Anthony said from in front of them.

"Really? Monopoly money? You could have given me a 500 dollar bill if that's what you're referring to," Lucas said, making Emily laugh a little. Danny then gave him a 500 from behind him, causing Emily to laugh even more.

"I didn't say I wanted one!" Lucas said. Emily laughed at the boys crazy antics.

"You alluded to it, plus, they're guys. They take everything literally," Emily told him.

"That will take some getting used to," Lucas said.

"You will, you just have to think before you talk around here," Emily advised, as Lucas learned something on the first day of school, from a cute girl he now had a crush on.


	4. Dreams

Dreams-

"Emily Daydreaming? That's not possible! She never!" Natalie was a little surprised. "She is always an ideal student! Role model!" Natalie continued "I doubt she would be daydreaming. Em? Emily? You are awake right?"

In her dream:

"Hey Em! What's up?" Ah... I like you...

"Oh, hi! Not much, you?"

"Well, I'm talking to you, so..." Yes! You are talking to me!

"Yup, and I'm talking to you. Anyways, what's up?" He looks different... He's kinda scared.

"Eh, I don't know. The sky, sun, stars, moon, planets, things like that?" Funny, but this isn't like him to just not talk the truth. He's normally to the point... Hmm...

"Nice, but is everything okay? Most of the Time if I ask you something you just say the answer and move on."

"Well, not really but nothing interesting. I've just got nothing to do with my life ya know? Same thing every day, over and over, and nothing changes. I don't grow, learn, get better at any important skill, or anything. I'm just here to be here."

"Lucas, do you want help or need help with something?" This is the true test.

"Nah, there's nothing to help me with." WHAT?! This isn't right.

"You want me to come over and hang out later or something?" Test 2.

"If you do, okay, if not then that's good too. Up to you." He's sick. Doctor?

"Do you wanna study later? Do the projects before we have fun?"

"I guess... I really should show them to you before we turn them in." He's tired?

"Okay, I'll try this. Why does it snow in April?" Meteorology. This should do it!

"No idea. Go to Ask Cantore or something." Since when has the earth spun backwards?

"Okay... Who won the Hockey game last night?" Sports. Maybe?

"We did 3-0." No description. No analysis. Nothing. Not exactly what I meant earlier...

"Did you fail the test or something? Did you forget to study? Did you miss a cue?"

"Nope. A's on everything again. Just like normal." This kid needs his head checked.

"So, why so down? Not normal? Not right?" I'd like to know.

"I'm never normal. Different is normal for me. I'm right, left, up and down all at the same time, it hasn't made me any happier. Oh well. I'm going to sit down now." What is he THINKING? Is he out of his Mind?! Ugh. Something he hates. What does he hate? Um...

"Hey, Lucas. If I were to move, where would you want me to move to?"

"Ugh... Critical thinking. Next door so I can still see you." Alright, a little better.

"If I had a hundred dollars, where would you go spend it?"

"At the mall. I'd find something." Hmm...

"What color would you paint the ceiling in my room if I let you choose the color?"

"What colors are your walls again?" Eh, alright. A question is good. A bad one though?

"Green and Red?" I reminded him.

"Oh right! I always imagined it as this really cool sunburst color. It's almost like a yellow orange with a little bit of black in it. I'll show you when we get home." This is better.

"Cool, alright so what are you doing later?"

"The projects?" Okay, I'm closer...

"Which ones?"

"History and Science?"

"Yup, with who?" Alright, here we go...

"My partner..." ARGH!

"Which is?"

"You. Assuming you still want to come over..." YES! I did it! Goal accomplished.

"Well, yeah, I'd like to." Calm, cool, normal. "So, what did we agree to?"

"You coming over after school to do the History and Science projects." YES! Victory! :) "Oh, and by the way, it snows in April because it's still cold." Haha there we go. He's back.


	5. Lunch

-Lunch-

"Hey Guys, what's up?" Lucas asked the guys side of the lunch table. The lunch table they sat at was split with the guys on the left side and the girls on the right. Nobody knew why, but it was.

"Not much. You?" Anthony replied.

"Not much here either. I see Danny hasn't gotten any more like his brother recently..."

"Yeah, yeah... Don't talk to loud. We don't want them to hear us." Val stole a glimpse of Danny before immediately reengaging in her own conversation.

"Oh, right... We totally don't want them to hear something they should have known last month... Uh huh..." Lucas adds for sarcasm.

"Hey, Hey, Hey! Look who's talkin'!" Danny responds in a joking manner.

"At least I KNOW I'm doing something bad, I'm not oblivious to it." L

"Doesn't make it any better." A

"Well, then. How about all three of us go over to the girls side right now and tell them. Didn't think so." L

"I'd prefer to speak on the topic with her Alone." D

"Oh, so you'd do it then? You'd tell her for real?" A

"I could if I wanted to." D

"Why don't you want to?" L

"The same reason you don't." D

"You don't have enough time or money for one... Okay then..." L

"Yet you still have enough time to daydream about her, go to all her competitions and events and still do your homework and fun activities for yourself?" A

"First, she's busy herself, time wise, it wouldn't work." D

"Pause! How about at school? You guys could be one of those school only couples." L

"Eh, sounds lame. Second, I'm saving money for a car, house and college, not girls." D

"That's why you get a job when you're older is to pay off your loans... Keep going." A

"Daydreaming can happen at any point... I can multitask while daydreaming. I go to all her competitions, yes, but you guys should too. Support our school. Oh, and yes, I still have time for that. It's all about Time Management." D

"Ugh... Excuses, excuses... You like her, ask her out." A

"Speaking of asking out... And girls..." L

"Well, Hello there Emily! How has your day been so far?" D

"Um... Okay I guess. It does kinda suck turning down a bunch of guys though... I'm almost starting to feel bad. I want to live my life and go on dates and stuff. What about you Lucas?" A and D laugh at Es extremely obvious attempt.

"I don't know. I haven't thought much about it... I mean, anythings possible I suppose, I'd just think it would be more likely to happen later than sooner."

"Oh. Okay... What about you two?" She asks in an almost sad kind of tone. She's trying to hide it, and it shows to the two boys she's referencing.

"I've thought about it, but it doesn't sound very new. I already see my crush every day, just adding hugs and kissing onto it seems pointless." A

"Same here, but my problem is how time consuming it is. I hardly have enough time to do everything I want NOW, let alone when I would be in a relationship." D

"Okaaaay... Well, I'll head back over there now..." Em said not getting anything she wanted. She came up short yet again, and it's become common for her to.

"Well, that was fun." A said as Natalie walks over to them.

"Hi Natalie, how is your day going?" D

"Eh, same old same old... Boring boring boring. I can't seem to find a way to enjoy class these days. You guys?" N asks group.

"School is school. Just gotta get through it. At least there is such a thing as weekends." A.

"Yeah, I guess... I'm getting a snack. See ya guys..." N says disappointed as well. Other two girls follow her.

"We have GOT to do something about this..." V

"Like what?! They're so oblivious and ignorant if we tell them flat out they won't know what we are telling them!" E

"Yeah, I guess, but... Well... Ugh, I shouldn't even have to think about this..." N

"Stupid boys!" All 3


	6. Say It Lucas!

-Say It Lucas!-

"So, you are trapped. Two on one, and you're not getting out till you tell us the truth." V

"About what?" L

"Your crush, silly! We've got a bunch of blackmail on you too..." N

"Like what?" L

"Oh, we have ideas." V

"Okay, so what do you want to know?" L

"First, do you like Emily?" N

"Yes." L

"Oh... Bold and confident too. I like it. Who does Anthony like?" N

"Why do you need to know about him? Ask him that." L

"Fine..." N

"Don't give up to him like that! He's a boy! He knows! TELL HER!" V

"That's not very threatening..." L V takes his phone, pulls up Emily's number.

"Do you want us to call her for you?" V

"Not really, she's probably busy." L

"Doing what? Waiting for you to call her? Yeah, right. Tell us who Danny and Anthony like and we will leave you alone." N

"No, she's probably busy doing something that will positively effect her life right now. Also, why do you need to know about them?" L

"Strike 2... One more until I push the green button. Waiting for you to call her is something that would positively benefit her life. If it weren't, we wouldn't be forcing you to talk to her about this." N

"You guys can't force me to do anything." L

"ARGH! Natalie, give me it." V

(Whisper) No, we can resolve this peacefully." N

"No. We can't. I give up! I can't take this!" V

"Well, I'm not giving this to you, because we can't disturb Em. Let's just relax." N

"Why am I here? If you guys know I like Emily, or at least think I do." L

"We want something to happen..." V

"What do you mean?" L

"We all keep on hearing the same rumors and truths that you guys like each other. We are getting sick of hearing rumors, we want to see some action. Something real and true!" N

"Something like a relationship or date or heck even a talk about your feelings, just something to show you have a chance." V

"Isn't that pointless? That doesn't do much... I want something from you guys." L

"Like what?" N

"Natalie! Don't ask what! Why! Why! Stick to the darn script!" V

"Why do I want something from you? I'm doing you a favor, aren't I?" L

"No... You're doing it for yourself." N

"If I were to do it for myself, then why didn't I do it already?" L

"ARGH!" N dials E's number on L's Phone.

"So much for peace Huh? What happened to not disturbing her and relaxing?" V

"I can't take it! Lucas, you talk. We will supervise you." N

"Fine. Oh, hi Em! What's up?" L

"Not much, just doing homework. Why you calling? Most of the time it's later than this?" E

"I'm being forced to call you now." L

"By who? Val and Natalie?"

"Yup. Not surprised?"

"Nope, they tried to do the same thing to me to, except the whole girls got control thing didn't work for me because I kind of AM a girl, so they had to give up."

"Ah, yeah, see I didn't let that work for them either, except for when they stole my phone."

"Really? That sucks. Anyways, uh... Since your on the line, how do you convert quadratics from Intercept form to Standard form again? I missed that in class..."

"It's alright, just use the box method, or use FOIL, first outer inner last."

"Oh... Oops! Right. Thanks! I'm kinda glad you called me. I'll talk to you again later?"

"Yup. See ya later Em!" L and E both hang up.

"WHY DIDNT YOU DO WHAT WE SAID!" We got the control over you." V

"Val, I have never seen you this aggressive before." L

"She could be worse... Like, more... physically aggressive." N

"Physically aggressive? Alright... Fine. I'll listen." L

"You gotta tell her at some point! Why not now!" V

"Neither of us are ready." L

"BOYS ARE DUMB!" N/V

"No we aren't," L

"Then what's wrong with you?" N

"You tell me," L

"You're not asking Emily out!" N

"That's a bad thing?" L

"Of course it is! Why would that ever be a good thing?!" V

"For the same reason her not liking me is," L

"Huh?" V

"You can tell her anything you wish, but just know that she won't believe anything you tell her about me, and vice versa," L

"That's why we are trying to get you to talk to her! Duh!" V

"Oh, fun. She called me again. Give me a second," V/N Smile.

"Hey... Lucas, one more thing," E

"Yeah, you can ask me anything," L

"Really?" E

"Um... Yeah? Why?" L

"I've been wanting to ask you something for a while," E

"Oh... Uh... You have?" L

"Yeah. It's kind of hard to ask, but um... Do you... Like... Me?" E

"Sure, I do, why?" L

"Well, I have too, so I've been wondering," E

"Wait, what? You have?" L

"Could say the same for you," E

"You could?" L

"Oh, come on!" E teasingly,

"What!" L Jokingly.

"There's no way you're that oblivious!" E

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't have waited this long for someone as special as you," L

"Good comeback. You know, you're lucky I like you," E

"Yeah, I know I am. And Thanks," L


	7. Overthinking

-Overthinking-

Lucas's POV:

Do I like her or Do I not? Well, let's see... I did have a hard time approaching her in History, I was embarrassed when she fixed my answer for me in math, I loved when she helped me with my essay in Language Arts, and I hated when she did better than me in personal fitness at Basketball. My excuses for each? Well, I had a hard time approaching her in history because I was so engaged in the lesson and wanted to study not talk even though we could be partners. I was embarrassed in math because it's always embarrassing when you have someone else correct your answer in math when you're wrong! I liked her helping me with my essay because the more people that help me the better, and I hated her beating me in basketball because I'm competitive. Great, so still not one interaction proves I like her. It's really annoying I have to prove to myself I don't like her. Why am I even think about this? "UGH I THINK TOO MUCH!"

"Yes, you do. What was it this time?" Did I say that out loud? With HER here? Where she could hear me? Heh. Heh heh. Oops.

"It was uh... Um... About my story! Yes. My story." That was lame. Bad response! "You see, whenever I think too much about what I'm writing I always get concerned about if what I'm writing is actually good and turn in worthy. Then I just give up and I don't do it." I tried to explain.

"Ah... Still thinking of excuses. Good one. Just know I'm right here if you want to talk."

"What do you mean Excuses? What did I need an excuse for?" Work?

"Oh, you know... To hide what you're actually thinking too much about."

"What do you mean hide it? I've got nothing to hide." Okay, that's a bold statement to make to YOUR CRUSH that you've been hiding it from!

"Oh, really?" She asked more questioning than daring.

"I mean sure maybe one or two things..."

"Fine, who's your big crush you've been keeping secret for at least a month?" It's been WAY more than a month...

"That is one of the very few things I can't tell you. Sorry."

"Why not? Is it me?" Oh great... This isn't good.

"How would you be able to tell if it was? You can't just say that."

"No denial yet..." She said to herself in the middle of my ramble.

"It's not like you have some notebook that has the answer to all your questions in it." She has a note in her handwriting saying I like her...

"You don't have any way of guessing something like this right, you... You... You can't photoshop an image to use as blackmail against someone who knows it's photoshopped. You can't change someone else's voice to match mine either. Oh, and right, your friends telling you are not reliable sources. They don't know what's going on in my head, and don't try to say that you have a mind reader because that's impossible. I have done nothing that proves I like you and that's that, and if I did I would like to see that."

Emily's POV:

Haha this is funny. I'm just waiting and waiting and waiting, and gathering up all this back evidence to use against him later. This is fun. I KNOW he's liked me for at least a month, I heard him try to defend himself from Natalie and Valerie's barrage of questions then, and he couldn't defend himself. It was funny. Now this. He knows by now that rambling on trying to defend himself makes him look less credible, and he tries it all the time thinking I will just give up. Yes, I am nice and I allow him too. You know, maybe I shouldn't this time. I never ever have gotten a denial from him yet. Just a lot of "You can't prove I like you"'s and a couple of "There's no way for you to know if I do or not"'s. I should just laugh at him when he's done with his ramble. Give me some control here. There. He finished.

"Haha, you know, I still never had heard a denial from you. I've been asking you for a month now and you never once said no." I had to say that to him.

"That's because... Um... What if I do in the future?" He asked more than defended. I just laugh.

"Lucas, this has been a lot of fun for me, and I almost don't want it to end, but you have ended the game dear friend." Ouch. Friend. That still does hurt me.

"What do you mean? I haven't been playing any games, especially fun ones."

"You've dug yourself a hole too deep to get out of here. Just tell me already."

"Tell you what? I have the right to remain silent." HAHA!

"Yeah, and what good has that done you? Tell me you like me. I won't bite."

"It's done me a lot of good. I haven't had to tell you I like you yet." Bingo! Strategy worked. It was a risk, but it finally worked.

"How long have you not been telling me for?" I want to keep this going to see if he ever notices his mistake, which by the way I DO have recorded.

"Since you- Wait... What?" That was fast.

"How long have you not told me for?" I asked again.

"How long have I not told you what?" Aye ye yei.

"Your crush on me you just actually verbally agreed to."

"When was this?" Haha poor boy.

"When you said I haven't had to tell you I like you yet."

"I never- wait. I did say that didn't I? Shucks. Fine, fine, what do you want from me?"

"I don't want anything, just that you admit your feelings outright, and admit you were lying to me for however long you have been hiding it." That's not too much to ask is it?

"Fine, fine, okay, Emily I've liked you since you've moved here and that's truth."

"Good enough." I kissed him, and he collapsed. Well, that's that.


	8. It's Too Early

It's Too Early:

Lucas's POV:

Why did she have to move here? I can't like girls! I'm only in middle school! I'm not ready for love! I hate this feeling! It... Hurts!

"What's wrong with you?" Danny asked like something was wrong with him too.

"I like someone, you?" I explained.

"Isn't that a good thing?" D

"Nah, not really, look at you," L

"What about me?" D

"You like Val but you ask out every other girl but her!" L

"That's because I want to know if someone else can make me feel good too," D

"Nobody will. You do know that, right?" L

"I don't know that, that's why I'm doing this," D

"Breaking all these girls hearts so you can learn you only like Val?" L

"The day you talk to your first crush I'll talk to Val," D

"If that's what it takes," L

"How do you plan on talking to her?" D

"Going to her house and asking to do homework," L

"Isn't that a little creepy?" D

"Not really, I don't have her phone number so I can't give any warning, and that gives me a week and a half to talk to her before school," L

"So you're okay with me not talking to Val for a week and a half?" D

"Eh... you're right. Maybe I should just go over now," L

"No! I'm not ready to talk to Val yet! Wait a week! Wait a week!" D

"Nah. I'll go over there now. See you soon!" L Hopefully she answers. I wonder if anyone else is home? Of course Danny is watching me... Oh well, I don't care if he knows I like Emily.

"Hey, what's happening?" E

"Not a lot... It's still summer," L

"Any reason you came over, or just to talk?" E

"Eh... I don't know. I just felt like it," L

"It had nothing to do with Danny daring you to come over here, did it?" E

"Not exactly, but kind of. Long story. It won't be like this long, really," L

"So, it was, then?" E

"It wasn't exactly a dare... It was a... Deal, I guess," L

"A deal? What kind?" E

"The kind where if I talk to 'the new girl' he'd talk to his crush. Seemed like a good deal for me. Been trying to get them together all year," L

"Ah... I see... Who is it? Val?" E

"Yeah, how'd you know?" L

"Natalie told me she likes him, and judging by the fact you just told me it was a two way street, seems pretty easy to figure out," E

"And you don't even really know him? That's odd," L

"You get used to it fast, don't worry," E I hope I do... I could get used to you...

"So... I'm not really a social person and I don't like to talking much," L

"Really? You come off as the open and trustworthy type," E

"Yeah, I kind of am, whenever I actually talk to people," L

"Then why exactly are you talking to me?" E

"You're new, you're different, you live right across the street from me and my friends pretty much, and I hate how the new kid always gets a bad rep," L

"So it has nothing to do with me, just the fact that I'm new?" E

"Um... How do I answer that?" L

"However you want," E

"I hate questions that aren't class work related!" L

"Too much thinking for you?" E

"Yeah... Especially for summer," L

"So... Answer?" E

"Uh... I don't have one? I don't know?" L

"Come on! It's not that hard a question, I've been asked much harder," E

"Like what?" L

"Not saying until after you answer my question!" E

"Fine... If a different cute girl moved in instead of you, I'd talk to them too... Probably. But I'm no sure, because that didn't happen. Fortunately, you did," L

"You're one of those crafty types. Like words. Interesting," E

"Uh, what does that mean?" L

"You're sneaky with words. You have a way of saying things where you can hide what you're saying inside a bunch of words," E

"Example?" L

"Alright, you basically just told me what I didn't want to hear, in hopes I wouldn't catch the truth. You answered the question with a yes, but the way you put your words together alluded to your real thoughts, which are the opposite," E

"Wait, so what do you think I said?" L

"You think I'm cute, you're glad I moved in instead of someone else, and that leads to a lot more questions," E

"Huh? What? How? You? Read? Minds? Uh..." L

"Lucas?" E (waves hand in front of face) "You're staring..." "Hello?"

"Okay, this is new. Most people don't read my mind like that," L

"I don't read your mind, I just think about what you're saying, is that new to you?" E

"Yeah... It's... Weird. I can't talk to you without you knowing what I say," L

"Can't be much worse than me," E

"What's that supposed to mean?" L

"There was this one guy I knew before I moved here, it was really funny to me, but it wasn't, he told me I was cute once, and I instantly knew he liked me, turned out to be the only lasting relationship I've had," E

"You've had a boyfriend before?" L

"Yeah, a couple. You?" E

"Nope. Forever alone," L

"Oh come on! You're in middle school! You've probably had five girlfriends by now," E

"Nope. Never liked anyone, at least, until this coming year, who knows what that brings," L

"You've seriously never had a girlfriend? I don't believe you," E

"Believe it. Never had a first anything, let alone girlfriend. You seem so surprised," L

"I am! If I told you I'd never had a boyfriend before, wouldn't you be surprised?" E

"Why do you ask so many tough questions. You should be a journalist," L

"Because I'm a girl, first of all, and every question I ask you would be hard. Second, because I know if I ask them you will give me answers. You're pretty loose lipped," E

"Sometimes that's true. Anyways, considering you told me you have already had a couple boyfriends I would be kind of surprised, but I guess I'm not. I don't know. I hadn't thought about it, really, I mean, why would I think about that before you asked?" L

"That's a good question. See, you can do this too! Why would you think about that? Oh, and why would you not be surprised? I'd like to know," E

"Um... Uh... I don't know? I don't think before I talk, I normally don't have to," L

"Why do you have to now?" E

"Because these questions are too hard!" L

"How? There's only one answer to all of my questions," E

"What's that mean?" L

"It means, that there is a good answer to all of my questions. I'm still waiting for you to say it," E

"Then why do I have to say whatever you are referring to?" L

"So that I can know for sure that my hypothesis is correct," E

"What's your hypothesis, that I want your phone number?" L

"No, but I'll give it to you. My hypothesis is that you think these questions are too hard, but they're really not, it's just that the only answer you can think for them as that you like me and you're trying not to say it, so you can't think of any good answers, even though each question has several good responses," E

"If you're questions are so easy, let me ask you some!" E laughs at L's request.

"Action!" E

"Really? Okay, what's your first impression of me," L

"Seems smart, kind, cute, energetic, not very bold, would like to meet his girlfriend so I have someone new to talk to before I met Val and Natalie. That's all I can remember," E

"Do you only describe guys you like like that?" L

"Trick question! Nice try. No, I don't actually," E

"Do you like me?" L

"Yeah," E

"Really? Just like that?" L

"You never asked how much," E

"Fine, how much?" L

"Why do you care so much?" E

"If you like me, I should probably know!" L

"Okay, then you should tell me, too," E

"You said too! I win!" L

"That doesn't mean anything you know, and this isn't over yet," E

"You actually said something wrong? I'm surprised! You never say anything wrong," L

"No, you heard me right, I think. I said what I said. It just has no meaning, because I said too alluding to the fact that you like me, of course, I don't think you're the type that's into relationships anyways judging by your lack of a girlfriend to this point," E

"Okay, convince me. What's the point of being in a relationship in middle school?" L

"First, so you can say you had a girlfriend when you get to high school. Second, because it's good for your self esteem. Third, because it's fun and you get to meet new people and do more things. Fourth, you get used to it for college and beyond when being in a relationship has long term future implications. Fifth, instead of constantly trying to hide liking someone, you're constantly trying to show it, which is much easier and much more fun for both people. Sixth," E

"Okay, okay, I see your point. I still don't get it though... Why do guys have to like girls so early on in life? It's too much!" L

"So that when girls like guys they won't say no because they don't like girls yet," E

"Why can't that happen! It gives boys more time to prepare!" L

"Ha! Guys need time to prepare to tell a girl they like them? Look at you. You're thirteen, clearly a boy, and you told me you like me. Why can't other boys be the same way?" E

"I only told you because you asked too many hard questions. If all girls made it this difficult for boys to hide their crushes, there would be no more crushes because everyone would be a couple and live happily ever after," L

"Hey now, don't forget the one big problem lying in all this- most girls don't want to be disappointed if they find out at the boy they like doesn't like them back, and it's the same way with guys. For example, if Val told you she liked you instead of Danny, what would you say?" E

"I'd tell her Danny likes her, not me," L

"If Val liked you though, she'd still be upset that you don't like her, and this doesn't make her like Danny any more than she already did. We just got lucky everyone likes each other here," E

"Then what's the point of being in a relationship?" L

"This question again?" E

"I mean, now that we are a couple and all," L

"Wait, you asked me to be your girlfriend and I missed it?!" E

"We told each other we liked each other, doesn't that count?" L

"Nope, because we can like each other and not be in a relationship like Danny and Val," E

"Fine, for formal reasons, do you want to be my girlfriend," L. E kisses L, L faints, E Smiles.


	9. Golden

Golden:

Lucas just stood near his locker staring at her. Who her was, he had known for years. Emily Moore was right there, not too far in front of him, in the middle of a deep conversation with her friends Valerie and Natalie. She was just standing near her own locker laughing, with her positive attitude lighting up his world. Playing with her hair that turned golden when it absorbed sunlight. He thought he had died and went to heaven when he had seen her. Of course, he had no idea why she was so much different than anyone else. His crush on her might have been it, but he was too lazy to find out how he could test that hypothesis and so he didn't. He just stood there, watching, waiting...

"Seriously, she almost saw you that time. The more you push it the longer you're going to have to get caught," Danny, Lucas's friend and Valerie's crush added.

"Is getting caught so bad?" Lucas asked in a daze. Danny shook him in an attempt to free him from his daydream.

"YES! You'll lose everything you ever had! That's not good!" Danny attempted. Lucas didn't expect an actual response, as he regained his normal thoughts back.

"Right! I can't forget that! I have to stay focused!" Lucas recites scripted.

"Stay focused on what?" Emily asks after approaching him. A frightened Lucas just freezes. He looks like an ice statue on a cold winter day. Emily's questioning look fades into a smirk the longer he takes. Due to this, Emily decides to take this opportunity to tap his shoulder. Lucas, even more surprised than before, falls back.

"Haha! You got me on that one. I was almost focused the whole time!" Lucas said, acting like that was his goal.

"Wait... You wanted to stay focused on something without me distracting you?" Emily asked, clearly confused on why Lucas was doing as he did.

"Um... Uh... Gotta run!" Lucas said before running off. Emily tried to stop him but Lucas was too fast for her, much to her dismay.

"Darn it! I was kind of close that time!" Emily complained.

"Kind of close? It took you breaking the touch barrier to break him! That's awfully impressive!" Danny said.

"Yeah, yeah, great for him! Sigh... I hate having a hopeless crush," Emily replied.

"On Lucas?" Danny asked, faking shock.

"Like you didn't know. Unless that was sarcastic, in which case great job!" Emily said smiling, and then the bell rang. They all had to get to their next class. History.

"Class, you are being assigned partners! Here's the list!" Everyone gets up to view the teachers master partner list. "I never said you could see the list yet! I never explained the assignment! Gosh, I hate middle schoolers," the teacher whined. Eventually, after a long lengthy explanation, they all found out their partners. The teacher of course was very knowledgeable on all their situations, so they got paired with the appropriate partners. Lucas was scared to have to work with Emily on something.

"It will be okay, Lucas. It's only a girl and we all have to do the same thing," Danny said.

"Define, okay," Lucas stated hesitantly.

"Unless you tell her your secret you will still have the same crush as you do now," Danny informed, to Lucas's slight discomfort.

"That still doesn't change the fact that it's Emily!" Lucas exclaimed.

"What about me?" She asked after hearing her name. Lucas faked his focus exercise again, however Emily was having none of his frozen mind freezes. She shook him, quite softly as to not hurt the boy, but enough to unfreeze him.

"Darn it! That was the fastest time yet!" Lucas whined.

"Just answer the question," Emily demanded in a somewhat sassy tone. Lucas scared out of his mind tried to run, however Emily knew it was coming and stopped him.

"What's running going to do for you?" Em asked him.

"Get me out of this predicament," Lucas tried.

"That's not going to happen. Well, it will only happen if you tell me why I heard my name," Emily added. Lucas attempted to look for a good excuse, but found nothing.

"We were talking about how us two are partners," Lucas gave up.

"Oh... Yeah, I'm excited for the project it will be fun!" Emily added, smiling. Lucas, relieved he could satisfy her question enough ran as Emily let go of him.

"Why did you let him go! You had him right in your hands! He was all yours!" Natalie exclaimed.

"Eh, he will give up some time. He can't just stay like this, can he?" Emily asked back.

"He's waiting for you to do something, he won't do something without being coaxed into it. You need to take his blinders off for him," Natalie explained.

"Why can't he take them off himself? I don't know anything about those things," Emily responded in a confused manner.

"Em! Ugh, fine. Analogies and hypotheticals don't really work with you do they? Just... Force him to tell you," Natalie tries.

"How do I go about doing that? It sounds difficult," Emily replied. Natalie facepalms.

"Here, let me show you... Valerie, take a quick stare break and get over here," Natalie demanded lightly, as Valerie went over to the girls.

"Valerie, you be Lucas, I be Emily, okay?" Valerie nods somewhat puzzled on how to act like a boy, also not understanding the purpose. "Lucas, look at me. In the eyes," Natalie says. Much like Lucas would do, Valerie tries to run. "Why run from me? It doesn't do you any good!" She adds. Valerie mocks nervousness.

"Yes it does! It gets me out of this!" Valerie acts.

"What do you mean by this?" Natalie asks in the scene.

"You trying to talk to me," Val responds.

"I only try to talk to you because you don't talk to me," Natalie says.

"Yeah, but that's... Scary," Valerie continues. Natalie laughs.

"How so? It's just us two. What's so bad about that?" Natalie questions.

"Well... It's... Hard. To talk to you," Valerie says just like Lucas.

"Then you need more practice," Natalie says confidently.

"How do I do that?" Valerie asks, laughing afterwords. "What?! It's accurate!" She adds.

"I know it is, that's what makes it scary and funny at the same time. Anyways, back to scene," Natalie replies. She facepalms like Emily would. "You do exactly what you are now. Speaking words, out of your mouth, using your voice, directed towards me. Like I am to you right now. Simple enough?" Natalie describes. Valerie just nods nervously. "Lucas, this would be a good time to practice..." She adds. Valerie just asks How, to a laugh from Emily, who's been observing the scene this whole time. "I see your problem... It just gets too annoying!" Natalie says to Emily.

"Great job Val, that was impressive!" Emily says. "Great impersonation!" She adds. "Natalie, nice job. I at least learned a couple things from that."

"Well, I wish you luck in your battle with Lucas," Natalie says, as Emily attempts to find Lucas. He had ran from their last class of the day, so he couldn't have gone too far, Emily thought. Lucas meanwhile had decided to wait for Emily so he could practice talking to her. At least, that was his excuse. He just wanted to make sure he could run home if he needed to. In case he was too scared of her. He was quite a bit faster, having run track, but Emily was great at long distance, having been in cross country and run 5K's. Lucas thought through everything before doing something he rarely did, text her, to tell her where he was waiting for her.

"Hey Em! I know you are looking for me! ;) I'm not that far up. I'm at Edgar Lane. CMIYC!" (Catch Me If You Can) He said. Emily decided to take the challenge. With her own twist, of course.

"You're way ahead of me! Who ever said I was looking for you anyways? Look, I'll take your silly challenge if you want. I do need to get something out of it though..." Emily replied by text. Emily smirked imagining things she could win while trying to catch up to Lucas. Lucas thought of a response...

"Well, you get the right to talk to me. Any time I'm not in class or asleep for the rest of the week," He responded. Emily decided she would be greedy. Lucas was probably really distracted by her texts, that she was catching up.

"Rest of the month! Including weekends. I won't annoy you, trust me. I'll be fair enough about response time, and I promise it won't be too bad for you," she bartered.

"That's, like two weeks! That's hard!" Lucas replied. He was starting to think he should text her when he got home and trick her.

"Not really, what's so hard about talking to me? What is it about me that you just can't talk to me?" She texted back. Lucas now worried he was starting to give up too much, decided he didn't want to partake in the challenge anymore.

"I don't want to do this anymore. Not enough incentive for me to win. I'll talk to you later though, maybe." He replied back. Emily of course understood his point. Yet she never got to offer him something for winning. All they were talking about was what she wanted, which Emily knew wasn't exactly what Lucas wanted to talk about.

"Okay, what do you want out of it?" She asked him over text.

"Nothing. I know I stand no chance, and I'm not going to fight a losing battle," He responded. Emily decided she was going to get him back for this. She was going to make it her goal to absolutely beat Lucas home. She discovered a shortcut a couple weeks ago, and thought about taking that instead. A thought then occurred to her. Her doing that would be proving him right. She couldn't do that! No, she was going to take the scenic route. The long way home. It was a Friday, and the only homework she had gotten that day other than really easy math she had already finished was the history project with Lucas. She could take as much time as she needed or wanted. Just strolling down the long, beautiful path filled with rainbows of fall colors, Emily got another text. Again from Lucas? He had asked where she was. Maybe it was a good thing he had called it off. She was the one with no chance, it seemed.

"I'm not going to get there for like fifteen minutes! How did you beat me by so much!" She texted back. Emily was quite surprised. She knew Lucas was fast, but there was no way that walking at her pace he would have been going much faster without at least jogging. She couldn't believe it!

"I don't know. I wasn't even trying. Eh, maybe I'll get started on other stuff while I wait for you," Lucas informed. Emily was slightly offended by the comment, but took it as teasing and not rudeness. So, she decided that maybe teasing him back would be a good way to get him back for the comment.

"So, obviously you don't want me to look nice for you then, right?" Emily replied, referring to her being in a rush just to go see "some boy". Lucas knew she was trying to tease him back, so he played it safe.

"Eh, either way. Doesn't really matter," Lucas started to type. He ended up deleting the comment. That was what she wanted! He couldn't possibly do that to himself. He wanted her to look good, and feel good.

"No, no, take your time! I just said I'll start other stuff! Let me know when you get here. There's no rush. None!" Emily laughed at the reply. She was going to test his patience. It would just be a leisurely walk all the way through to her house, and if Lucas complained one more time, she would be all over him.

Lucas, meanwhile, had become extremely impatient. Not in an aggressive way, but in a longing type of way. He knew what she was doing, unfortunately for him, it just so happened to be working. It was like a charm or curse to him, and he couldn't break free from it. She was breaking his spirit, his will. Of course, she was the only one with that type of potential. Nobody else could even see the top of his internal walls, yet she was tearing them down like it was Berlin. Lucas went down fighting. Fighting so hard he didn't even have the energy or the courage to stand up to her anymore. She was just a legend, and he had to cave. It had been almost a year and a half since he first developed the opening stages of a crush on her when she first moved in. He was going to have to give sometime, right?

"You are coming straight here when you get here, right? You're not going home first?" He asked, trying not to sound too obsessive. Emily, of course had finally gotten what she wanted. A chance to maybe take him down.

"Geez, the way you're talking I'd think you have a crush on me if I didn't know any better! Don't worry, give me time!" Emily replied. Lucas wasn't expecting the response he got. So he just ignored Emily's trap altogether.

"How much more time do you need?" He asked. Emily, of course unrelenting in her power at this point, especially knowing he was caving, decided to stress her point, again, and fix her mistake from before.

"Geez, Lucas! You must REALLY have it bad for me if you're this worried about what time I see you next! I was just teasing last time, but maybe you do actually like me," She corrected. Lucas flipped. He had no idea what to say anymore. He figured he would rather discuss this over text than in person at least, so he decided he would respond, he just didn't know how. About five minutes later, Emily had shown up at her house. Lucas looked out his window to the living room to see the girl eating some potato chips and watching TV. It showed her highlight clips from a game that took place last week. She was one of the best volleyball players at the middle school age group in the state, and was getting recruited by high schools to join the team the following year. She would immediately jump up to Varsity and start. She'd also be respected on campus as a freshman girl, which is quite rare in many high schools. Emily of course turned them all down. They all wanted her for her ability. She wanted to go to her local high school. She'd be with Lucas, she would not have to go far from her house, she would keep all her friends, everything else would be the same but the school and classes themselves. Lucas almost lost her for good! She had made the right decision, he thought while watching her. She got up to pause the video, with her ponytail swaying back and forth as she moved across the floor. Lucas totally forgot to text her back, so he quickly attempted to formulate his response...

"Wait... You actually think I like you?" He replied. When the text went through, he noticed Emily reach for her phone, nod her head sarcastically, and type back a reply.

"Yeah! Why else would you care so much about when I came over?" Lucas got exactly the reply he wanted.

"So that I was prepared and had everything ready for if you were coming right over." Emily shook her head.

"It had nothing to do with you liking me?" Lucas smirked. He knew Emily would try this tactic! It was the way she was. Lucas wasn't going to bite.

"It only had to do with the project. What makes you think I like you anyways?" Lucas asked in response, keeping up his charade.

"Well... Your smile is always bigger around me, you blush sometimes, your eyes light up, literally, when you see me, you bite your lip a lot around me, you're not tired around me most of the time, you're more self-conscious... That's just physically." Emily said. She had a point, but Lucas was a good debater, he had a counter.

"Wait, so all the things you do around me are the reasons I like you?" Lucas asked. The conversation had taken a turn Emily certainly didn't expect, so she went into defense mode.

"Yeah... Those are things guys do when they like girls, not things girls do when they like guys. Yes, there is a difference." Emily replied, trying to save herself. Lucas, stunningly bought it, probably out of nervousness for his own self.

"So what exactly do girls do when they like guys?" Lucas asked. Emily was just shaking her head at the text message. Lucas laughed slightly while awaiting a response. Emily didn't want to tell him too much.

"You know... Basic stuff... Like... Talk to fast... Show signs of nervousness... Try too hard to be stylish because they want to impress..." Emily said. Lucas laughed out loud to the response.

"So basically everything you do around me... Okay," Lucas says. "So you like me?" He asks her. Emily gets wide eyed at Lucas's assumption.

"I don't do those things!" The girl replied.

"What do you mean? You always dress up some when you come over here, and you do talk kind of fast, and sometimes your body gives off sub conscious signs of nervousness. It's obvious!" Lucas said.

"Prove it!" Emily demands.

"First of all, are you sure you want me to? Secondly, you defending yourself just adds credibility to the claim. Third, shouldn't you have to prove to me you don't?" Lucas asks. The girl feels like a Pokemon trying to flee from a battle.

"Yes, no and no to those three parts. Prove to me why I like you and I might give you a prize." Emily says. Lucas gets interested, and Emily isn't exactly down and out yet.

"Fine. Come over and I'll show you." Lucas claims.

"Fine! I'll just listen to you and do whatever you want me to -_-" Emily texts.

"Hey! I'm trying to prove you LIKE me here, not hate me!" Lucas teases.

"That's the point. Why do I need to help you prove something that doesn't help me?"

"You are my evidence. My first witness!" Lucas exclaims.

"Fine, burden of proof is on you!" Emily texted. Lucas agreed, so Emily reluctantly went over to Lucas's house.

"See example one. You are wearing a ponytail because you know I like them, you are trying way too hard to hide your nervous grin behind that weird expression of yours now, and you clearly are fighting back a blush right now," Lucas explained.

"Well then, I didn't think we would start discussing this so soon, but okay. You are smiling, and while I am wearing a ponytail its your fault you like them, not mine. It's easy for me, and you are talking fast. Plus, I can basically feel your heartbeat from over here," Emily retaliated.

"What do you mean you can feel my heartbeat, are you sure that's not yours?" Lucas questioned, attacking Emily's assumption.

"Fine, lets see who's right. I bet it's me!" Em said.

"What do you mean? What are we doing?" Lucas wondered.

"Feeling each other's heartbeats. Why? You scared of a girl?" Em teased.

"N-No..." Lucas said while biting his lip. Emily smirked at him.

"Aww... Lucas is scared. How cute! The only thing to fear is fear itself, come on! You have to know that by now!" She added. Lucas gave a nervous smile in return.

"Okay, okay! Forget it! This is too awkward! I can't do this! You can stop now, you win," Lucas admitted, Emily faking sadness.

"Why? You think you can get out of this that easily? Ha! You must be kidding," She said to him. Lucas looking nervous tried to escape and run to his bedroom. He was quite successful, until he realized the only way out of his bedroom for hours was going to be through Emily, who was now sitting on the floor on the other side of the door. Fortunately he had entertainment in his room, his phone and his charger, and he could try and call someone to try and save him.

"Unfortunately for you, I think this is a good experience for you. You need to talk to Emily one way or another, and her being the only way for you to leave your bedroom sounds like a great way to do that. Have fun!" Danny replied to him. Lucas sighed.

"You're going to have to talk to me eventually. Why not now?" Emily asked.

"I don't know. What do you want to talk about?" Lucas asked obliviously, opening the door to his room so the two could see each other's faces and not talk through a wall. Emily laughed, having higher hopes for Lucas than that.

"What do you mean? You, me, us, together, alone. Let's talk about pumpkin pie! Or rain! Or, oh, I don't know... Flying monkeys!" Emily sarcastically said.

"Have you ever had pumpkin pie in the rain with flying monkeys?" Lucas asked oblivious to Emily's sarcasm.

"Lucas, you don't get it do you?" Em asked him.

"Get what?" He asked back. This is what Emily was prepared for. Him asking weird unnecessary questions that made little to no sense whatsoever.

"Why do you go through all the trouble in the world to avoid telling me things? You never tell me about your feelings other than nervous. What about joy? Frustration? Sadness? What about your romantic feelings? What about your attitudes toward school subjects? Just what do you feel? Why?" Emily asked.

"I don't go through any trouble hiding whatever I may hide from you. It's easier to just tell you a lot of things if you ask. Sometimes, of course it's just not worth the trouble. What is there to tell you about feelings? I mean, one minute I'm sad because I have to do homework, the next I'm happy I finished it. It changes too quickly for me to notice," He replied, truthfully answering one of her questions for once.

"Yeah, I get that, but feelings don't just change. Emotions might, yes, but not feelings. Every time I want to talk to you about things you always try and run, and I want to know why. Why do you think running is the best option?" Em asked.

"What other option is there? I can't just talk. It's too... Not normal." Lucas replied.

"Than make it normal! Life would be much easier if we could just talk to each other without our feelings distracting us," Emily added somewhat surprising Lucas.

"Wait, you mean... You know?" Lucas asked.

"YES IVE KNOWN! That's why I'm trying to get you to tell me! That's why I know you just don't want to and you're hiding it from me! That's why I want you to talk to me about your feelings, now does it all make sense?!" Emily flipped, finally giving up.

"Mostly, there's just one outlying question... Why do you care so much?" Lucas asked.

"Wow, you are a clueless mind aren't you? Fine, because you're a boy, I'll give you another chance to figure it out. As a human girl, why would I spend so much time dedicated to trying to get you to figure this out?" She questioned.

"You're the one that knows, right? You never told me unless I never would have had to ask, is that true?" He ask.

"Fine..." Emily paused taking a deep breath before continuing. "Notice how I said our feelings distracting us, the first time..." Lucas shook his head. "Well, I did." Lucas just looked confused at the girl. Emily was too nervous to be frustrated about him not understanding what she was saying. When she got no response, she continued, "I just want to have one of those happily ever after endings, you know? I just don't know how to make it come true. Our story is totally different from everyone else's, I don't know how I can get a storybook ending. Is it what I want?" Emily rambled.

"What I think you want, Em, is to write your own ending to your own story. You don't want a storybook ending. You just want it to be your own happy ending," Lucas explained. Emily looked kind of surprised that he had read her mind.

"Y-Yeah, but... How do I get one?" Em asked him.

"I guess we will just have to find out," Lucas said, taking her hand in his, and walked to the living room together.

"I see something finally happened," Christina, Emily's older sister stated.

"Yes. Yes it did. Finally," Emily announced to smiles from everyone around the room.


	10. New

New:

"Emily? You there?" Lucas asked as he stood outside her room waiting for her. She was getting ready to show him her new style. Now that she knew she liked him, she got his opinion on some things, and wanted to show him the end result.

"Yes I'm still here! I'm almost done," Emily replied. Lucas knew girls took a long time to get ready and all, but he never expected Emily to put as much time into this as she did. He is quite the impatient person, after all, and would rather be doing something worthwhile instead of waiting to see something he could see any time.

"You or my sister; who takes longer..." Lucas teased softly thinking she couldn't hear. Of course, she could, and had to remind herself Lucas was a guy.

"I get you don't care about fashion at all, but do you want to see me look good or bad? I would assume good, which is why I'm taking my time. I'm almost done, I promise, and trust me, even I think I actually am looking good now," Emily said. Lucas was at least a little better when she said she liked how she looks now. Also, he knew she was going to be in a much worse mood if he rushed her and made her look worse, which was not beneficial to either of them. He did have one question he wanted answered.

"Em, one question; why do you care what I think about what you look like? I mean, shouldn't it be you that matters?" He asked.

"Yes, that's why I'm trying something new despite the fact you liked it before. If you like it now, I didn't lose anything, but I gained happiness in my own looks," Em replied

"So why does it matter what I think?" Lucas asked again.

"Because you are a boy, and boys know what makes a girl look cute. Sometimes," Emily added, as she finished up after making Lucas wait nearly twenty minutes.

"To be fair, asking me to represent our whole gender is kind of unfair, I mean, I'm only 15 and I have very specific preferences and..." Lucas got cut off by Emily's exit from her cave. Maybe this would be much easier than he thought to give his opinion.

"Glad you like it. Worth the wait?" Emily said, noticing Lucas's expressions and reactions. Lucas nodded. Emily laughed, now confident she had impressed Lucas.

"So, um... Yeah, it's... It's nice... I like it... It's... Great. I like it... Uh," Lucas said, while Emily just smiled. It was a very pacific-style outfit on the Atlantic side of the country, which is probably what surprised Lucas the most. It was an emerald green dress with sky blue accents. A necklace, wristband, socks, short heals and ponytail. It made Emily feel great. She has a connection to what she wears. Different colors and outfits make her feel different ways, but this one felt really good on her. The green and blue combination always gave her a relaxed, calm, peaceful feel, which she desperately needed when she was with Lucas for one reason or another.

"Alright! Well, this is all I can show you for now. The rest will have to wait. That's just a sneak peak of what I can do. Obviously you'll like the rest of it too, but I want to keep it a surprise. Anyways, let me get back into my normal clothes and I'll be right back," Emily announced as she went back into her cave, a.k.a her room and got back into her normal clothes. This left Lucas wondering what exactly that outfit could be used for. Or even what her normal clothes were.

"Em, how long will it take to get back into your normal clothes?" Lucas asked.

"Not long. I just have to decide what normal clothing outfit I want to wear," Emily asked. Lucas never understood how Emily kept her clothes organized. He never went in her room, in part because she didn't want him to go in there, but he was fascinated by how girls, or at least Emily, could have so many different types of clothes, make prearranged outfits based on them, and keep them organized so that each outfit stayed together. He just put on a random shirt from his closet and whatever pair of jeans were on top, while Emily appeared to have everything meticulously planned out.

"These are new too, right?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah, probably. You normally only see me in my summer clothes or my school dash professional attire clothes." Em said. "Oh, and my basketball uniform. I think you'll like those this year too," she added. Lucas smiled at the response. He was lucky to know Emily, let alone talk to her and be friends with her. She was a captain of one of the country's best basketball teams, and also a starter on the volleyball team as only a sophomore. Lucas took the available time to daydream about how he not only was able to meet and talk to someone like her, but know her well enough to develop a crush on said girl who somehow was placed right across the street from him. As he thought, Emily came out, only to see him daydreaming about her, so she just laughed a little and sat down next to him. Lucas had no idea what she saw in him, but the fact that she was talking to him was good enough for him. She was basically his celebrity crush. Most boys would say some famous actress or something, but he would just say a girl on his high school's girls basketball team. What Emily liked about him was how simple he was. He wasn't over the top, exaggerational, and she liked that. So many other guys would make a big deal about her, and how great she is, and Lucas treated her like any other normal girl that would live right across the street. When she was with him, all the attention wasn't just on her. She was just a part of a world where only two people existed, and the whole world outside of them was irrelevant. It made everything she did with him much more special and unique. He was there to support her, and vice versa, and most importantly, the only things she doesn't like about him are his natural shyness and obliviousness, which seemed to be helpful at some points actually. They fit together well, and ultimately, that is what matters.

"Woah, you scared me," Lucas said awakening from his daydream. Emily just smiled. "I didn't expect you to be done so soon," he added.

"It's been a half hour, I didn't even take that long to get totally ready! I've been waiting for you to wake up from your daydream for at least 15 minutes," Emily informed.

"You could have just tapped me somewhere and I would've woke up," Lucas said. "Sorry about taking up time. Want to make it up?" She asked.

"It depends. How?" Lucas asked back.

"Want to go hoop? You have a basketball?" Emily asked him.

"In my room. I'll be right back," Lucas said as he ran back to get the basketball, while Emily got ready quickly to go to the indoor courts on the other side of their subdivision.

"You ready?" Em asked, as she came out. Lucas nodded.

"Not ready to get destroyed, but I still think I have a chance." He said.

"Just don't go easy on me! I am good, you know," Emily encouraged, winking at him.

"Me? Go easy? On you?! Heck, I go easy on everyone, that's just who I am." Lucas replied. Emily laughed.

"Yeah, I know. That's why I want you to try. So you are at least good competition for me. I want to destroy YOU, not your ghost," Em taunted.

"Beating me is your goal? Maybe that's your problem, you need better goals," Lucas said. Emily shook her head.

"No, no, no, the problem is you not trying. The problem is you letting me win," Emily replied. She wanted to beat Lucas for real, not just to win, or to be good, or for any other reason. They both knew she was good, but Emily wanted Lucas's competitive edge she knows he has to come out. She loves him when he tries, plus, destroying him at her own game when he is trying is much more fun for her than no contest. Maybe he might even win a time or two.

"Fine, I might actually try one time," Lucas replied. Em eye rolled as a response. "What?! What's wrong with that! I said I might try!" Lucas asked.

"Yeah, you might try once? Really? You should try every time. What's the fun in one good person trying and one other person who doesn't spend half their life on a court trying? There's no point!" Em responded.

"Isn't it fun to win all the time?" Lucas asked her.

"No, not if there's no contest. If you came down here with nobody else guarding you, and counted the score for and against you, it wouldn't be fun to keep track," Em said.

"That's the best kind! It's like free practice! That sounds fun!" Lucas replied.

"Alright, show me how fun it is. Play against yourself and keep track of the score. Then we will see who's right," Em said.

-Five Minutes Later-

"I'm bored. You were right. It would be so much easier if it were just free practice," Lucas gave up. "Can you play against me now," Lucas pleaded.

"Only if you try. Then maybe," Emily said back, copying him from earlier.

"Fine, I'll try. Let's play, I start!" Lucas called out, as Em stole the ball from him so they could start 21. It was actually pretty competitive. Lucas had hit a couple of threes while Emily relied on beating him through the lane on dribble moves. The score was 19-15 Emily was leading, when she noticed Lucas start to get tired.

"Come on, you can't be tired already! Maybe you need to try more often," Em teased.

"I'm not tired. I'm just actually trying for once. You give me the ball two more times and I'll win, I don't recommend that," Lucas said.

"You really think so? Fine, let's test your hypothesis. Take two threes with me guarding you, hit them both and I'll give you something," Em said, passing Lucas the ball. He sprinted around the line, before Emily finally started to get tired. She left the right corner open for Lucas, who took his first three pointer and hit it. He'd get the rebound, draw Emily to the left corner and get over to the top of the court, where from right in the middle of three point territory he would hit a three pointer, after he got Emily to bite on a crossover. Emily looked pleased, mostly for him that he tried and won.

"Maybe I can beat you sometimes, can't I?" Lucas taunted. Emily laughed at it.

"Well, I suppose that's what happens when you actually want to beat me at something. You actually win every once in a while," Emily said. She took his hand as they both took the five minute walk back home. When they got back, they went inside Emily's house.

"So, you said you have something for me?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah, just give me one second..." Emily said back. She went inside her room, closing the door like normal. She then counted to five, threw the door open, pulling Lucas inside who was now frightened for his life after being pulled inside a door he thought was closed. After regaining normal breathing patterns, he became aware he was in his crush's room. He had always wondered what it looked like.

"Em? Where are you?" Lucas asked as Em laughed at him for asking.

"You only have four more minutes left in here. Then I'm kicking you out, just so you know. Also, no looking in my dresser. Only my closet and what's in the open," Em added. Lucas had finally figured out how she did everything. Her clothes being so organized, her other stuff being so organized, and all her systems and cycles that enabled her to keep her room clean. He then looked at her color schemes and designs. It wasn't pink or purple or any other girlish color that he might have thought. It was a deeper shade of red, with a darker shade of yellow that approached gold and a metallic like shiny silver, that was nothing like grey, that had a tint of black in it to make it a little bit darker. Lucas was intrigued by the color choices, as he had expected something either girly like a pink or purple or something like her, like a green or blue. Instead he found all kinds of fire and metal-like colors. Essentially, everything else. Lucas was glad he finally got to explore all of her trade secrets, until he felt something. She had grabbed his hands, turning him around to face her. "I can't let you remember any of this. Looks like I'll have to give you my special potion," Em said back, kissing him on the lips. Lucas went wide-eyed, then was effectively paralyzed losing all control over his body, and falling unconscious, just as Emily had planned. "That worked out as expected for once," Emily said aloud to herself.

She then carried Lucas to his house across the street, entered into his own room, and cleaned it for him. Within an hour, she was gone, he was still unconscious in his bed smiling, and she had cleaned his room for him as a reminder of what had happened. She left him a simple note, saying "You're Welcome- Signed, Emily Moore" with her name in cursive in blue pen before returning to her own room, happy with herself she had finally gotten the moment she craved.

After being happily stone-cold for an additional half hour, Lucas finally re-awoke from the dead. He obviously didn't remember anything until he saw the note she left him. What was he supposed to thank her for again? He looked around to find his room actually neatly organized. That's why he needed to thank her! Then as he removed the blanket Emily covered him with, he got a slight chill. He remembered it now! She had kissed him! He'd have to get her back for that sometime...


	11. Hidden Secrets

Lucas's POV:

Emily. Hmm... What can I do about her? I can't just say I like her, that's too straightforward. I can't keep denying it, or she'll think I don't like her for real. I can't do nothing because it's impossible to do nothing in times like these. Ugh... You know, overthinking things is great sometimes, but others like now, it's the worst.

"What are you thinking about, Lucas?" Emily asked. I almost forgot she was here!

"Nothing I don't normally think about," I respond.

"What do you normally think about," She wants answers, why?

"School, mostly..." I try.

"What else? That's surely not what you are thinking about right now," She suggested.

"How can you tell?" I asked, wanting in on her secret so I can fix it.

"Your eyes and your facial expressions are different right now than at school. This is more creative, imagination like at school you look more analytical," What's that mean?

"How do I fix it?" I ask, hoping she will help me.

"Tell me what you are thinking about now and maybe I can help," She smirked.

"The fact that I overthink things too much," I half truth it.

"You overthink what too much. Something other than school," Am I in trouble?

"Uh... Things?" I don't say confidently,

"Lucas, you're acting like what you say to Danny and Anthony will get you by with me, I am a girl, I can not only see right through you, but I can read feelings. What good is hiding your secret doing you anyways? Let alone the harm it seems to cause you," she explained.

"The fact I don't understand girls Em! There's so much pressure and so much... Confusion and things, it's just... I don't get it!" She always gets to me. I go to grab something from the fridge while Emily sits on the couch just... In shock, almost. Just proving my point further.

"Exactly! Like, I have no idea what you're thinking right now! I don't get it!" I add.

General POV:

After Lucas admitted he didn't understand Girls, Emily was shocked. That was one of the last things she wanted to hear from Lucas. When Lucas said he couldn't read her thoughts, it made her feel a little bit better, but the fact that he was suddenly worried about understanding girls was disappointing to her.

"Why-why do YOU need to understand girls?!" Emily asked him. She had two thoughts running through her mind. The first was that he might like someone else. The second, was that maybe she pushed him too far. This was the first time she felt like she lost control over their conversations. It was off script. It was actually personal, and she didn't know what would happen next. Of course, the thought ran through her mind that he understood girls enough to get her to like him, why not someone else, but that wasn't Emily's concern, at least her top one.

"Who doesn't! They are like half the human race! You don't understand girls, you don't understand life," Lucas adds.

"It's okay if you don't understand life, you're only 15, you know. You still have a lot of time," Emily tried, hoping she could continue acting like nothing bothered her.

"You seem like you're an odd mix of scared, confused and surprised right now. What's up?" Lucas admitted, not thinking about what he just said.

"What the? I thought you said you didn't understand girls?!" Emily asked, with those three emotions mirroring her feelings.

"Oh, I can read emotions and expressions fine, I just can't read minds," Lucas replied.

"Girls can't read your mind either!" Emily exclaimed, hoping her strategy would work.

"Then how do you do it! It's unfair!" Lucas whined back.

"I can't! If I could I wouldn't have to ask what's wrong or what you're feeling like or anything like that every ten seconds would I?" Emily replied.

"You are the opposite of me. You have trouble reading my feelings, but you read my mind just fine. I can't read your mind, but I understand you're feelings... That's weird. I think I finally understand life now," Lucas said out of nowhere. Emily suddenly felt trapped. If Lucas understood her feelings, did that mean he was knowingly taking her crush on him for granted and trying to understand some other girl? She had the option of just admitting her feelings for him, but would she do that? Risk it all just to find out he was trying to understand someone else? She started to feel a bunch of weird emotions. Stress was one of the top ones. She thought of one question to ask him before she ran out and gave up all hope. It was worth a shot.

"Are there any emotions you can't read?" Emily asked as a last resort.

"I'm sure there are, I just haven't found them yet. There's flaws to everything," Lucas said, desperately trying to read what she was feeling when she asked that.

"Might one of them perhaps be when someone likes you?" Emily asked, hoping Lucas didn't catch where she was going with her question.

"Nope. I can tell pretty easily when someone likes me. That's one of the reasons I knew I could read feelings and such. It's harder for me to tell if I like someone than the opposite,"

"Who exactly are you trying to understand anyways," Emily said discouraged.

"Well... I really don't feel like saying. I mean, it is supposed to be a secret," Lucas tried.

"So you're trying to understand some poor girl who doesn't even know that some guy is trying to understand her? I mean, that seems pretty... Invasive, almost..." Emily questioned. Lucas couldn't read Emily. He just didn't want to admit it. It's like he wasn't meant to. That's why he was trying to understand 'girls' he really just wanted to understand one, like Emily thought, but she didn't know it was her. If Emily could read his mind, she would clearly know what he was thinking now, right? Emily, was thinking the exact opposite. Like she tried telling Lucas, she couldn't read his mind, despite her best attempts and hopes. They were now both thinking the same thing. If they could read each other, wouldn't they each know about the others crush on them?

"You say you can read my emotions, right? Try me," Emily demanded boldly.

"I can tell by your voice you sound... Daring. It looks like you're trying to decide between hopeful and hopeless and I think you like someone, but I can't read your mind so I have no idea who, and every once and a while I'll see confused, surprised and nervous among others," Lucas told her. She finally understood it. He couldn't read her mind, but he could read her feelings. Then everything came to her. She knew exactly what was happening. Lucas thought she liked someone else, and so he needed to understand girls because if she liked someone else it would never be him, so he wanted to like someone. Maybe she kind of could read his mind. A little bit.

"I'll be back in a little while," Emily told him. She didn't say how long a little while was, and to be honest Emily didn't know either. She just wanted to lock herself in her room and take the rest of the day off from the world.

"How long will it be? Why the sudden feeling change?" He asked her.

"Not sure, but it won't be too long, I don't think. Later today for sure," She forced a smile as she walked out the door, leaving her phone at Lucas's house so she had a reason to go back later when she felt better. She had a passcode on it so she felt safe leaving it there. She instantly did exactly what she was thinking about. Lie down on her bed, and start to get upset, like most 15 year old girls would if they thought a guy didn't like them back. Lucas was trying to figure out what happened. By this point he had given up on ever understanding girls, his code for figuring out Emily's thoughts, when he saw her phone. It was locked, so he couldn't use it, but he thought of an idea. He decided to call Emily to find out what his ringtone was. It sounded like a default track, but he wasn't sure. He then asked Danny to call her phone, then Anthony, then her two best friends, Valerie and Natalie. Each of them did, not knowing why he was doing this, and when she didn't answer any of their calls, all four of them were worried about Emily. The last thing on their minds was Lucas listening to all their different ringtones. Sure, it was kind of private, but he had heard them all anyways, he'd come to remember. He just didn't think of it when he asked them to call. Everyone else had a special ringtone. Some type of song that played when the phone rang. The only exception to that was Lucas, who was still on the default tone. He decided to try calling her with the old home phone he'd been using before instead, when it was a different ringtone. It was a song he'd never heard before, but was kind of different. His four friend's songs were upbeat, danceable, etc. his, was quite the opposite. It was almost a sad sounding guitar intro, that was played quite slow.

"A ballad? For me? What's up with that?" He thought out loud. He then heard someone knocking at the door. He instantly knew it was Valerie and Natalie.

"Why'd she leave her phone at your house, and why did you ask us to call her if you knew?" Natalie said as soon as he opened the door.

"I think she left it here so she remembered to come back from... Something she never told me about, I have no idea," Lucas explained.

"Then why did you want us to call her?" Valerie asked.

"Because I thought she took her phone with her until I called her to ask where she was and heard her phone give off a boring old ringtone," Lucas said slightly discouraged by this. The girls then understood what he was doing.

"So you asked us to call to see if it was different than yours, and it was, wasn't it?" Lucas nodded in response to Valerie's question.

"She's so predictable. What did your contact name come up as?" Natalie asked, realizing this was a prime opportunity she couldn't let go to waste to set the two up.

"I didn't bother to look. I was too busy focusing on the ringtones. I want you to tell me if this song is familiar to you real quick," Lucas called Emily's phone from the home phone, and the slow sad sounding ballad played again.

"I don't think I've heard it before," Valerie lies to cover for Emily. Natalie elects a different route, although not the most direct one.

"What's our ringtones?" Natalie was going to figure this out the hard way where Lucas would have to figure it out himself. She wasn't just going to give him the song!

"Val's was the guitar part to Brown Eyed Girl on repeat, Danny's was Dancing In The Streets, Anthony's was the Crazy Train intro, and yours was Smooth," The girls were confused, but happy for themselves.

"Wait, so Emily chose either our fav songs or songs that fit us perfectly, right? That would mean she would have had to do the same for you, right?" Natalie suggested.

"I guess... I mean, I didn't get this phone that long ago, in fact I'm not even listed as a contact yet. She doesn't have my number?" Lucas asked

"Well, maybe she didn't think you got a new phone? Who knows," Valerie responded truthfully. She decided to stick with that principal again. "Hold on a second. That song. I think I might know it," Natalie didn't know what Valerie was doing. Trying to set them up like she was, but make it more obvious?

"Okay? Is it a good or bad thing?" Lucas asked, unsure he wanted to know, even.

"Dream On. By Aerosmith. It's a great song, it's one of my favorites from the era, actually. I just don't understand why she picked a song for you that you don't know," Valerie said confused, but honest at the same time. Natalie instantly understood the song choice, and Valerie wasn't sure, but she did, but Lucas couldn't figure it out. What does Dream On have anything to do with him? Maybe he should listen to the whole song and not just the title and the intro guitar.

"Well, thanks for stopping over, do you want to give her her phone back so nobody else is worrying like you guys did?" Lucas asked.

"I guess. I'll tell her to add your number too," Val said, taking Emily's phone, not questioning why he didn't do it.

"Thanks! I'll see you guys tomorrow," he said as he closed the door, before going up to listen to Dream On and try to understand why she chose that song for him.

Emily, meanwhile was listening to Kansas. Dust In The Wind, to be exact.

"Same, Old, Song, Just a Drop of Water in an Endless Sea," The ringtone she set for her home phone in case Christina needed to call her on that for some reason like a dead battery or something. It was one of Christina's favorite songs that Emily had taken a liking to as well. Valerie ended up going to Emily's with Natalie, as they had to ask Emily some questions.

"Uh, why do you have my phone? When did you see Lucas? Why are you here? What did you do to Lucas? What did you-" Valerie gave Emily the cut off sign, so she stopped rambling, before walking inside the house.

"I have your phone, because Lucas gave it to us to deliver back to you. I saw him a minute ago. I didn't do anything to him, just talked to him and Natalie and tried to figure out why he doesn't have a special song like we do," Valerie kind of asked.

"Huh? What brought up my ringtones?" She asked, worried Lucas found out the meaning behind his.

"Well, Lucas tried to call you, not knowing you left your phone there. Heard a default ringtone. Thought you left it there on purpose so he just kept it for when you came back like you wanted, whatever that meant, but Natalie and I tried calling you and you didn't answer because Lucas doesn't know your passcode, but we found out from him he had your phone because he knew by this point, so he told us to go over to his house so he could ask us about your ringtones apparently," Valerie explained the whole story. It made common sense, but what stuck out to Emily was that she received a call from an unknown number, and then two from Lucas.

"Why did Lucas call me twice?" She asked. "After you guys?"

"No, the first unknown number is from Lucas too. It's his cell phone, he was just too lazy to give you his number," Emily scoffed. Stupid Boys, of course was her thought.

"Why? Dang, I need to think of another ringtone!" Emily exclaimed. Trying to think.

"What was the purpose behind Dream On anyways?" Val asked.

"I'm assuming he asked you guys?" Em said, Val nodded. "Okay, well, it should be pretty obvious, but basically Lucas is the guy of my dreams, not for real life. I need to keep dreaming, because if I stop, I lose Lucas, but if I don't and try too hard for real, I'll either really lose Lucas and never move on, or move on from him and find someone else, or just be alone my whole life..." Emily told Val her story, which was quite depressing, before Emily's excitement kicked in again. "I got it! Lucas's cell phone ringtone! Alone by Heart. Seems like a good song name, good artist, I like the song, it's the same era, everything. Perfect!" Emily said. Valerie was quite confused.

"Why are you choosing sad sounding power ballads for Lucas? I'm assuming that's what Alone is, right?" Val asked.

"I guess you can call them that, sure, but what am I supposed to choose? Happy by Pharrell? For Lucas? It doesn't fit. Sad by Maroon 5 is too depressing and almost boring. At least the two songs I picked are timeless classics," Em proposed.

"Something happier would be nice, maybe?" Val replied. "I mean, he does make you happy, right?" That seemed like common sense to her.

"When I'm not dreading over forgetting him and eliminating my crush on him," Em said, "which is most of the time now."

"Not you too! Come on Em!" Valerie pleads.

"Maybe when he doesn't like someone else," Val just stood like a statue. She was frozen shocked. Could Emily have just said Lucas likes someone else? No, no, no. Val wasn't buying that for a second. "He asked me how to understand girls," Valerie had no idea what was happening, everything around her was changing. While her crush on Danny was just getting bigger and bigger, her two best friends crushes were failing miserably and falling apart right in front of her eyes on two of her three best guy friends, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"So, you're saying that Lucas likes someone else?" Val said. "You can't get Anthony to like you," she said to Natalie, "And I can't get Danny to even talk to me?" Val finished.

"Sounds about right." Natalie replied. Emily was even more sad after hearing Valerie describe everyone else's struggles too.

"Now do you see why I chose two power ballads for him? I mean, the song starts out with a good piano intro that's repetitive. It's perfect. Just like Dream On," Emily explained.

"I love how you make all your ringtones personal, but shouldn't you make them... Happier? I mean, how can you stand to be sad when your crush is about to call you?" Val asked.

"Haven't you heard the song? The lyrics aren't too depressing, it's not like a breakup song or anything, and the second verse is impeccably accurate to my life," Emily said. Val was confused, so Emily played her the song.

"It makes me want to cry inside. It's so dreary... Sad... Disheartening..." Val replied.

"I don't care how sad the song is. I care about the lyrics, and the lyrics and the range and everything is amazing. Heck, if I could sing it I would be rich, not have to worry about Lucas, and my life would be great!" Emily faked.

"But you are oh so wrong. You would still like Lucas if you could sing that song, which by the way I'm very sure you could do quite easily. You could be all rich and famous and everything but you'd still like Lucas, and you wouldn't care about any other groupie guy if he was the only one that came to a show of yours," Natalie spoke up.

"That's... That's... Sadly true. Sigh... Why are you right?" Emily questioned.

"I know what you're feeling. That's why. It's hard Em! That's why we have each other. Girls all unite, work together as one. Help each other out in times of need, even if I don't know why you are upset with him right now," Natalie said.

"He asked me how to understand girls, and it was personal, and it wasn't normal lame friend talk stuff, that's why!" Em said.

"Exactly what Natalie said. Why is that so bad?" Val asked cluelessly.

"He likes someone else! He even said as much!" Em exclaimed, as Val and Natalie exchanged glances with each other, not knowing how to approach the new problem that came up.

"Are you sure? I mean, how do you know?" Natalie asked.

"He said I need to understand girls, I asked him why, he said because I like one, I said who and he said its a secret with no emotion. Seemed pretty obvious..." Em explained.

"Oh, okay, you had me worried for a minute there. I thought he did like someone else..." Val said

"I don't know... Maybe he does..." Natalie said smirking.

"Why the smirk? This isn't good!" Em said.

"Yes it is. It means either he likes you and you win, or he likes someone else and you can get over him," Natalie said.

"I don't know how to get over him! That's the issue. I've never had to do this before. That's what is making this so hard!" Em replied.

"It sounds like you two need to talk. You obviously don't understand we are teasing you. Of course there's nothing to worry about," Natalie said.

"You two talk to him! I have my own things to worry about," Em said.

"Like what? Lucas? Uh huh. I'm calling him." Val stated boldly.

"But-But- You might distract him! It might-He might not answer!" Em replied.

"If he doesn't answer leave a message. He's not Danny, he'll call you back later. If it distracts him, too bad. He needs to take the time to talk to you." Val said, while Natalie agreed with what was being said. Emily just sat there pouting.

"Em, calm down! You need to chillax a little bit! It can't be that hard talking to Lucas, can it? Sheesh. I don't get you sometimes." Natalie said.

"Fine! Give me the phone, I'll talk to him... If it matters this much to all of you, he will probably just-" Em got cut off as Lucas answered.

"Hey Val, what's up?" He asked.

"Val is making me talk to you, so hi." Emily responded, leaving Lucas confused.

"Em? Uh... Hi, I guess... Um... Is... Is something wrong or..?" Lucas asked, as Emily normally didn't call him.

"No. Just Valerie forcing me to call you is all. She wanted me to apologize for leaving earlier, but I left my phone there so I would have a reason to go back later," Em said.

"Wait, that's why you did that? Oh. I thought you just left it here." Lucas said. Em just rolled her eyes. Lucas didn't really know what to say, as he was really unprepared for the conversation they were having.

"So I talked to you again. I got my phone back and added your number, and I think that's all I have to talk about right now, so I will talk to you again-" Val stole the phone back from Emily as she was saying bye.

"Lucas, this is Val," Lucas responded with a hey Val as she left to go to a different part of the house. "So, you really need to talk to Emily. She thinks you like someone else and she's getting super agitating about how you can't like her. Say something nice to her or something. Make her think you still like her even if you don't." Val said.

"For the record, I do still like her, but I don't think there's anything that would get the opposite to happen. I've already tried. I'm a lost cause. I feel like I'm annoying her and I need to just step back or something. Be her friend when she needs me to be. It's obvious she doesn't want anything beyond that right now," Lucas said.

"You don't know that! You can't just say what you think someone else wants! This isn't all about her, it's about you too. You can't just say oh she might want this so I'll let it be! Ugh. Do you like her or not? Yes or no. Simple. One word response." Val tried.

"I'm not sure." Lucas replied.

"Too many words. That's three, I only want one. Yes or no. Oh, and maybe this will help. She still likes you either way," Val added.

"Doesn't make this any easier! I mean, I don't know what to think! I wish I did, but I have never had to do this before, and I don't know what I'm doing, and..." Lucas started rambling.

"Lucas. Stop. One, little tiny three letter word. Say the darn word." Val demanded.

"You say this like you know I still like her. How could you know?" Lucas asked.

"If you didn't like her you would have said no right away. Since you do, you are trying to get me to stop caring, which will never happen by the way, to try and keep your secret, which also will never happen, just so you know," Val said.

"So, because I haven't said no yet I like her? Shouldn't it be the opposite?" Lucas asked, questioning Val's tactics.

"Not with you. With boys, everything is the opposite. We say I don't not like a guy, you say I like a girl. We say something embarrassing, you get embarrassed by doing something stupid. Everything is the opposite. This is a perfect example." Val said.

"So I'm guilty until I say I'm innocent, in which case you have no reason to believe me anyways and still will consider me guilty?" Lucas asked.

"No. That's why I'm asking you. I trust you're judgement and that you will tell me what you feel. If you still like her, I trust that you won't tell me you don't because it would ruin everything. If the opposite were true, everything would be irreparable, and I know you don't want that, plus that would be stupid to do anyways. If you tell me you don't and you truly don't, then oh well, it didn't work out, I can help Emily enjoy single life. If you do like her and tell me so, it could be happily ever after for the rest of both of your romance lives. Pretty simple. Whichever path you choose is up to you. You can lie or tell the truth, and say either yes or no, but I need one answer.

"Fine. Conditions included, I guess I do..." Lucas said.

"Wait, so a yes with conditions? What are they?" Val asked.

"No relationship, nothing romantic, and I don't want it public." Lucas replied.

"Then what's the point of doing anything about it?" Val asked.

"None. That's why I haven't done anything about it, and I won't until I'm ready to change my conditions," Lucas said.

"Well, whatever. I suppose it's your loss. Might want to hurry up with that. As Emily's agent I field lots of offers from guys, so... Good luck! You wait too long you might even have a disadvantage in the bidding process. Talk to you later," Val said hanging up.

"Well?" Natalie asked. As Emily just sat there annoyed.

"He likes her. He just doesn't want anything romantic including a relationship and he doesn't want anyone to know that he likes her. I don't get it." Val announced.

"See! It's not my fault! I'm telling you! Boys are stupid! They don't understand us. They try to or say they do or whatever, but they don't! They never will!" Emily said.

"I don't think that's your problem. I think you're problem is Lucas is too smart. He's trying to outplay you, or us, rather, and we are letting him win. We need to work together and come up with a strategy to pin him down." Natalie suggested.

"How about cornering him physically into a wall and not letting him move until he talks to Em about his feelings?" Val proposed.

"That's cruel! What if he has to go to the bathroom or he has an important thing he has to go to or something!" Emily alerted.

"Em, it's the only thing that's going to work. We need to make him feel like he is a mouse and we are the cats. We can't just keep playing games, or you will never win! If he has to go somewhere, we let him go and catch him again when he comes back. If he has to do something like go to the bathroom, then we make him wait until he is done with us." Natalie said.

"That's harsh, isn't it?" Emily asked.

"Nope. Now, do you want to figure out if he likes you or not?" Val asked.

"Fine. If this is what it will take. Just know I don't plan on helping much." Em relented.

"Hey Lucas!" Natalie says as he answers. He starts to get suspicious when Natalie calls, but will at least give it a shot.

"Hey Natalie, what do you need?" He starts.

"From you? A lot. You can start by coming over Em's house. The sooner the better, I'm sure all of us would just like to get this over with," Natalie replied. Lucas didn't know how to react to that, he could pretty much tell he was going to be cooked like turkey on Thanksgiving, but not going at all was way too risky too.

"Alright... I'll be over in a few. Just give me a couple minutes to get ready," Lucas said, who did not really anticipate having to go see his crush the rest of the day after giving her phone to Valerie and Natalie. After getting ready again he made it over to her house. It felt quite eerie for him, and he couldn't tell why. Natalie opened the door, kindly inviting him in.

"Okay, so here is where we are with this. We all know you like Emily, regardless of whether or not you admit it or not. Here's what it comes down to- do you lie and tell her that you don't like her, which breaks both of your young hearts and ruins any chance you two have together which would be terribly disappointing, or do you tell her the truth, and end all of this non-stop madness solving more problems than you create. It's up to you, but you have to pick one.

"What do you mean? I don't have to... I'm not sure yet!" Lucas answered.

"How are you not sure!" Val asks as she meets the two in the living room. Emily was just listening to it all unfold from the kitchen patiently, quietly, and deeply engaged in hard thought about it all.

"I'm just not! I don't know, I'm not ready yet!" Lucas replied.

"What do you mean you're not ready yet?" Val asked.

"Too many hard questions! I don't know the answers!" Lucas said.

"Yes you do! They are easier questions than what you answer in math!" Natalie adds.

"These are higher pressure, higher stakes!" Lucas tried. Val and Natalie both took him by his arm, and lead him to a corner.

"We aren't letting you leave this corner of the room until you answer our question. Do you like Emily enough to want to go out with her?" Val asked. Lucas started to try and fall asleep on purpose, however this was something the girls had been training for.

"Wait, so Emily puts you to sleep. Talking about a girl who's super cute, smart-" Val starts before Lucas cut her off.

"I just was trying to take a nap when you called," Lucas said. "I thought I was done with this already..."

"You won't be done with this until you make up your mind on what to do, and do it." Valerie told him.

"Doesn't this bother you? Doesn't it upset you? Don't you worry about it a lot?" Natalie asked him.

"Yeah, I do, that's why I'm taking a long time to make sure I make a good decision," Lucas replied. The girls were less convinced.

"Lucas, girls have this ability... We can tell when you are lying about romance. It's just... Natural for us as a gender. Let's just say, you are failing a lie detector test right now." Natalie told him.

"I can't be! That's true! What other reason would I not be saying anything for?" Lucas said. He didn't understand everything himself, if he had to be honest.

"You are doing this because you know lying to her would destroy her, and you, but you aren't willing to take the risk that everything turns out fine and dandy. For some stupid reason you feel like she doesn't like you, even though she could practically be in love with you, and you don't realize that if things gosh forbid do take a downturn, you can always slow down or go back a level. The only thing you are doing right now is admitting that you like her and think she's cute. Nothing special about it." Valerie explained. Lucas didn't understand what she had said. Everything she had told him was exactly the opposite of what he had heard from everyone else.

"I don't want to lose anything! I value my freedom, and life and time, and current family and friends and everything! I don't want it to end!" Lucas whined.

"Ha! You, are funny. Freedom? You have always liked Emily, be honest with yourself. You were never interested in anyone else. Life? She's not going to kill you, you will still have a life. Time? Heck you spend so much time with her now, you might actually get even more time to yourself! She doesn't change anything related to family at all, and she is probably one of your best friends at this point, and certainly won't change anything with that category. We all agreed regardless of what happens all six of us would stay friends regardless of what happens with romance. What else?" Natalie shot down every single counter Lucas had in him.

"Why are you making me do this then? If this is so good for me, what does she get from it? What happens next?" Lucas asks.

"We are making you do this, because we care for both of you, and this is way too stressful for you guys to have to deal with. Not to say dating or a relationship isn't stressful, but it's easier to deal with things together. What she gets from it is a great guy for a boyfriend who actually cares about her enough to actually ask what she gets from a relationship. She doesn't need anything, she just wants you to be bold and take a step up. She knows this whole crush thing is probably bothering you as much as it is her, and thinks it's about time that whole era ended. As for what happens next, nothing changes. Only more kissing, hugging, doing things together, more alone time with yourself and or her, and more love instead of crush feelings." Valerie described.

"So... I don't get why this is so important. It sounds like nothing changes." Lucas said.

"Then what's the problem! If nothing really changes, then why is this so hard for you!" Natalie asks, not understanding boys minds.

"The title. Being someone's boyfriend? It's a scary thought. I don't like not knowing what consequences can happen because of my actions." Lucas said.

"What's the worst that can happen? There's either two endings to this assuming you go through with this. The first, is that you stay lifelong friends after you guys break up for some stupid reason like different colleges, the other path is that you guys stay together your whole lives, have kids together, and experience the rest of each other's lives with each other, sharing all kinds of valuable timeless memories with someone you care for." Valerie said, adding to her romantic persuasion tactics.

"I guess I'm just nervous. Unsure. Worried..." Lucas echoed.

"For what! Do you want to see those things?! Follow me, I'll make you feel them. You're telling Emily exactly what you just told me. She deserves to know what you're feeling, heck we've already told you what she's feeling like! You have to talk to her anyways." Natalie said, as she literally pulled Lucas halfway across the house.

"Hey Lucas! Glad you could make it! I didn't expect to see you, take a seat in my office. I think the blue chair will suit you best, but sit wherever you'd like." Emily said quite professionally despite knowing that this conversation with him would likely be super emotional for her one way or the other, and would likely determine half her life story.

"Sorry for the wait, I was um... Busy being... Talked at by your friends." Lucas explained, as Natalie smiled widely. Emily just sent Natalie an expression that read along the lines of what did you do to the poor boy now? Emily was pleasantly surprised when Lucas elected to continue the conversation instead of just stopping it before he said something wrong.

"So, what did you talk about?" Emily asked.

"Oh, mostly girls, boys, you, me, relationships, romance, the like." Lucas admitted.

"Okay, and what happened? I want to know. For real," Emily asked.

"Well, exactly the same things I just said. The exact same things I just said. We talked about things, and then Natalie dragged me in here because she wanted me to talk to you." Lucas said, as if he was unafraid.

"Why exactly did she bring you in here? Other than to talk to me, like, what prompted that?" Emily continued questioning, wondering when they were going to talk about something deeper.

"I said I didn't want to tell her what I was feeling, so she said she didn't need to hear it anyways, you did, so she drug me all the way across the house, literally," Lucas answered, leaving Emily slightly surprised.

"So, you wouldn't tell them what they wanted to hear and now they are forcing you to talk to me about it instead. Good! That's exactly what I planned! Now tell me," Emily demanded from Lucas. She wanted the details. She wanted to feel what he felt. She wanted to know what it was like to be in love with her. She craved the feeling of it.

"Well, um... I'm feeling... Tired, still. Uh, somewhat bored, I've just been talking to girls for the last hour or so. I don't know what else," Lucas answered in the moment.

"Not what I'm talking about. I want to know how you feel about me! Lucas, I'm not super scary, and I hope I'm not mean or anything like that either. The worst thing I am is demanding, and that's because I've been waiting for an answer to this question for five years now and you've never given it to me, so it's making me tired, and-" Emily stopped talking while she saw Lucas just sit back in his chair and smile.

"Why did you stop talking? I was enjoying listening to you. You could say the worst things ever and you're voice would make it sound like it was greatness," Lucas said, hinting to Emily what she wanted to hear.

"In a charismatic, or charming kind of way?" She asked.

"More charming. Charismatic is more of a personality trait," Lucas replied.

"You're cute when you compliment people. Do you know that?" Emily asked him. Lucas responded with a blush, and a shy head shake. "You are."

"Okay, okay fine! Fine! You're too nice to me. I give up. If you want to know, I will tell you. The truth. I can't handle keeping everything bottled up in me. It's terribly taxing on me and it's getting increasingly difficult to stay strong," Lucas boldly stated.

"Um... Okay? About what?" Emily asked, acting clueless to play the game.

"My crush on you. I've had one the last five years, three months and a day. Since you moved in. Don't ask me why, I don't know. Don't ask me anything else about it, I don't know. I truly don't know anything, and that's why I haven't told you. I just know I like you and that I have a crush on you. That's it. Nothing else," Lucas admitted.

"You know that everything you said is kind of a big deal, right? I mean, you finally told me your first crush ever has been on me. Lucas, come here... I don't ever want to let you go. Again." Emily said, while hugging him, trying to comfort him after he had just spilled his feelings for her. He hadn't quite expected that, so he accepted, and it actually felt better to hug her than he thought it would.

"Em... Why do you do all this? For me? I don't get it. You do so much for me, and all I have ever done-" Emily cut him off by putting her finger to his lips.

"You clearly underestimate yourself. That's something I guess I need to help fix. Lucas, you aren't a nothing. You have not done nothing. You are a someone who has done something. Nothing will ever change that. To answer your question, it's because I like you too, but that's for another time. We can worry about my feelings for you later."

"Em? I... I... I don't understand this. Everything. Anything rather. None of it makes any sense. I guess I just... I don't know. I don't know anything anymore," Lucas said.

"Don't worry about it!" Emily replied. "Just stay yourself. You don't need to understand anything. You just have to know it exists."


	12. Distractions

Lucas's POV:

What's so great about liking a girl? Why do I have to like someone? I can get away with not, right? Ugh... So many questions, so little answers. I can like someone if I want to, but, do I want to? I can choose to like anyone except for Val and Natalie. Who knows about Emily... What do I think about her? Emily... Hmm... I could go on and on, I don't even want to start. Girls are complicated like that. So why even bother try? I don't know what I want to do or say or think. I just want something. I don't like this feeling. It's like I'm unsure. What's weird, is that it's only not there when I'm near her. Emily. Instead of unsure I'm more nervous... More afraid, scared whatever you want to call it. Now that I think about it, why am I scared around Emily? There's no reason to be! We are the same age, have been friends for years, etc. Why aren't I normal around her anymore? Is she normal around me? Maybe she's not! Maybe that's why I'm acting not normal around her is because she's not normal around me!

"Who?" I hear a girls voice, assuming it's my sister.

"Emily! I don't get myself." I say without looking. Said girl quickly tries to leave my room, before I realize it wasn't my sister. It was Em.

"Hey, wait a minute. I want to ask you something..." I tell her.

"I really don't want to disturb you." She said, headed in the direction of downstairs.

"No, you're not. I was just... Thinking." I respond. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, I guess..." She responds.

"So, am I the only person acting weird, or have you changed too? Since we were kids?"

"Well, both of us have. It's been 10 years now Lucas. Things change over time."

"I'm not even talking about that, I'm talking about us two. Just me and you. It's like something is changing how we talk to each other. How we act around each other."

"Is it? I mean, I always thought it was just because we were growing up. Getting older. That things like that change as people get older, especially with High School starting."

"Oh. Okay then. Thanks. If you want to go, you can... That's just what I was thinking about."

"Oh... Well if I'm not distracting you anymore I was kinda hoping I could stay... Unless-"

"Yeah, of course you can! You always distract me, I'm used to it." I tell her.

"What do you mean by that?" What DO I mean by that?

"It's... Nothing. Nevermind. It's not bad. Anyways, I'm not working on anything, so just don't break anything. Do whatever you want. I need to think." I said.

"Alright. I'm here to talk if you want. If something is bothering you let me know. I can try and help." She responds politely.

"Well, of course something is bothering me. I just don't like to talk about it. Especially when people ask about it, or if it's about people that offer to help." I just told her it was about her.

"Wait, so... It's about me? Is that why you said my name louder and acted more surprised when you finally realized it was me when I got here?" She asked.

"Yes, yes it is." I just don't know what to think about it anymore. I'm kind of blanked. I don't like the feeling either. I say looking up reasons why I should like Emily, and then how I can tell if I do or don't. Ugh... Love is complicated. Harder to understand than Geometry.

"So... What's up? I mean, if it's about me, I'm pretty sure I could help you out... I mean, I do know quite a bit about myself..." Em said.

"Well, it's quite complicated... I don't feel like explaining the whole story... It's rather long, and... Well... I don't want to hurt someone."

"What do you mean? Hurt someone? How does telling a story about me do that?" E

"You don't want to know. It's too hard to explain without getting into the story and the story is the problem and the problem is deep. It's something I don't understand about life yet." I'm too young for love anyways. I shouldn't have this problem yet.

"Well, if you feel like talking let me know. Remember what we talked about last year? How nothing could ever destroy us?" Us? I like that word. It makes me feel good. Us.

"That if something was bothering us we would always be there for each other?" Us again. Each other. I feel it now. "That we could always help each other if the other one needed it?" We. Us. Each Other. Together. Always. I did it. I made up my mind. I like Emily. I do. For real.

"Yeah. I figured it out. Thanks. That helped a lot. I feel better now." I genuinely said, with a smile on my face. She looked relieved. Good.

"Are you sure? You good now?" She asked.

"Yes. I am. I'm sure what I want to do is what's best for me. For everyone involved." She smiled. I love seeing that. A great reward.

"So... What's up with Danny lately?" She asked.

"I don't know. He seems to be quite oblivious. He can't see anything around him."

"Sounds a little like you before I came in... Is something going on with you guys?" She asked

"I don't know... It's just weird. I think Anthony is the same way." Let's see if SHE figures out my hint... Probably not.

"Really? So it's just a guy thing..." Emily assumed. "I wonder why."

"It's not just a guy thing, everyone does it when they are in deep thought," I told her, hoping she would buy it.

"Yeah, but not like what's been going on the last couple of days. Or weeks," She said back.

"I don't think anything's changed... It's all normal, I'd like to think," I tell her.

"Tell me, what's going on that causes you to be in such deep thought you confuse me for your sister, Danny confuses Valerie for Natalie and Anthony confuses his sister for Natalie? I don't think it's just a coincidence."

"Well, um... I don't know about them... I just know that... At the time in question, I was thinking about something so important that it was important. Not just important, but so important." I rambled to try and get her to stop asking me.

"What was so important, I ask again?"

"Something important enough for me to spend time thinking about it. It was a... Debate! Yes, that's it. A debate Anthony and Danny are having," I lie.

"Sure... That sounds logical," Emily says her voice dripping with sarcasm and an added eye roll, not buying anything I tell her.

"Does that not sound reasonable?" I ask.

"You tell me."

"Then I don't remember what I was thinking about," I lie again.

"Ha! You're funny. Or in you're words, you are so funny you're funny, it was that funny." Emily says trying to copy my hiding technique.

"Fine, what do you want me to say?" I ask.

"The truth, perhaps? I'll know it when I hear it, and I'm not leaving until I hear it." She announces boldly. I wait a few minutes waiting to see if that would work. Instead, she just looked more irritated and bored. She kept checking the time to see how long she had waited for me to answer her, but I was never giving in!

"I'm willing to talk. What do you want to know?" I ask, slightly dejected.

"What you were actually thinking about when I came in, like I've been trying to ask you about since I came in?" She said with a sinisterly sarcastic finish.

"I was thinking about how much we've changed since we got older. Didn't I already tell you that? We already talked about that." I tried to explain.

"Yeah, but why were you thinking about me? You don't just randomly say, oh I want to think about some random girl right now," She says quite pushily.

"You're not just some random girl! You're Emily! You are my best girl friend, only crush ever, and you live like right across the street, and are in five of my six classes. Thinking about a random girl would be thinking about Madison or something. That would be awkward and random, and then I would go back to thinking about something I'm doing, you, Val, Natalie, Danny or Anthony." I exclaim.

"Works for me, I got what I wanted to hear. I'll talk to you later. Have fun!" Emily said. I instantly questioned what I had told her and why she suddenly thought I had answered her question.

"What do you mean, you heard what you wanted to? What did I say?" I ask.

"Oh, just nothing... Nothing important at all... I mean, I just collected some incriminating evidence about you, but it's no big deal. I'll see you later!" Em tried hiding.

"I don't get the big deal... Girls are strange." I say mid-sigh.

"I heard that! We are not strange, and it is a very big deal. I've been waiting for you to tell me you like me for a year now, and you finally did. Trust me, big deal!" She said before running back downstairs to avoid talking to me again. I guess I don't know what just happened.

*The Next Day*

So, yesterday happened. I wonder how today is going to go.

"Hey Em!" I say as she walks fast past me like she's running late.

"Hi." She says monotonously.

"Uh... What's up?" I ask trying to keep things from being awkward.

"Nothing," She says before picking up her pace and jogging out of talking distance. Sigh... Now I have to wait another half hour before I can talk to her again. Or rather before she could possibly talk to me. I go back in, check my phone and find a text from Valerie. Not a normal occurrence, that's for sure.

"Hey! I probably wouldn't say too much to Emily. She's been in a bad mood all day today. I don't know why. She said after everything that happened with you yesterday and all her work piling up she was getting really stressed." Val said.

"I didn't do anything to her yesterday! I just kept on lying to her before she got irritated and so I told her the truth and she left. Only said two words to me since." I replied.

"Huh. She's using all kinds of relaxation techniques for her today. Jogging, yoga, basketball, she's having a day to herself and sent us a text saying do not disturb." Valerie responded. Something's not right.

"Hey Natalie! Do you know what's up with Em today?" I asked her.

"Yeah, today is her relaxation day. Once a week she's choosing a day where she focuses all on herself. Between you and school she has a great deal of stress on her plate right now and she wants to clear her mind before she does anything irrational." Natalie texted back. Strange... I cause her stress? Why?

"I cause her stress? How? Why? When did I?" I ask her back.

"Why? You are a boy, that's pretty simple. How? Talking to her. When? As late as yesterday. She said she was getting pretty annoyed with you yesterday," Natalie texted.

"Wait, so because I am a boy who talks to her, I cause her stress? That's great. What about Danny and Anthony? She singled me out?" I ask.

"Yes, yes and yes." Natalie answered.

"Why did she say I cause her stress but not them? I'm confused." I ask.

"Maybe because you talk to her more? I don't know. She just said you stressed her out yesterday and she needed some time to relax today." Natalie said.

"I don't even know what I did! I'm so confused... What could I have said that she would say I cause her stress?" I ask.

"If you talked about her romantic life, if you at all insulted her, if you ignored something she said multiple times, if you made her wait for anything important, could be any number of things." Great. I really made Emily mad at me. That's just what I needed! Now I'm stressed. Just fantastic. I need to work this out.

"Well, I guess I was much less sensitive than she is... Thanks for the help," I say before going to the one spot I know she will be at, at least at some point. As I walk outside, I get another text from each one of the girls. Valerie's basically asked what I did with her yesterday that could have caused her stress, so I told her what Natalie told me. Natalie's just asked if I knew she was a girl, to which I responded with a yeah... Finally, there was one from Emily herself, which I found surprising.

"Where are you going? I saw you walking out of your house..." Um... Okay?

"I'm just going to a relaxing place. A place where I can have comfortable silence and a lack of noteworthy company where everyone will just ignore everything I do," I text back, hoping that doesn't frustrate her. I arrive at my destination a couple minutes later, to find it all alone like normal. The elementary school gym is always empty after school let's out, because they normally have all the events at the middle schools. I make sure nobody else is in the gym, which is pretty easy to do as it's just a great big square with a bleacher section that actually goes quite high up. I climb all the way to the top row, and sit as far to the left by the entrance I can go. I decide to check my phone again, and find a text from Danny. Another unexpected text today.

"Emily just asked where you are. What happened yesterday? She seemed... Stressed?" He mentioned. She asked where I was? Why?

"First, I know she's stressed. Apparently according to Val and Natalie I caused her stress, which is why I'm mind blown as to why she's asking where I am." I reply.

"I don't know either. I asked her why she wanted to know, and she said because I care, I just want to know where he is," Danny sent.

"Delete our text history. Send me three texts 2 minutes apart saying 'Lucas, where are you' in the first, 'Emily is looking for you' in the second and 'Nobody knows where you are' in the third. Take a screenshot, and send it to her after it's been 10 minutes since the first text. If she overreacts tell her I might just be busy or something." I send. Danny does as I say, except he adds a fourth text. "Em just said that she tried to call you and it went straight to voicemail. What are you doing that you are so busy?" I didn't respond, as was the plan. I then got a text from Emily, who had obviously seen the screenshot. It was the biggest trap yet.

"I just talked to your sister, she said she didn't know where you were either. Nobody knows anything and people are getting worried! Just let us know you are alive!" She sent. I decided to text my sister and thank her for not giving me up.

"Thanks for not telling Emily where I am. I am alive, and great, and in my normal spot. If you need me, text me and let me know what you need me for. L" After pushing send, I trust her not to tell Emily anything. Maybe I should have just put I'm alive. I then hear a frustrated sigh coming from inside the gym after the doors opened. I look and see Em, much to my incredible surprise. It takes a lot of work to hold back any noise or sound from escaping me, but somehow I manage to complete my task of staying silent. I guess instead of playing basketball I will just get to watch Emily practice.

She starts off by missing a couple of jump shots, her whole psyche coming off as distracted. I guess kind of what I expected. She switched to lay ups though, then went on a roll. 10 straight lay ups, before moving back to jumpers again, and going around the horn in the paint, and covering every section behind the three point line, She hit all ten shots, and then just started free shooting. Every couple shots she would eventually miss, but she shot at least 60% if not better. She looks so cute doing it too... Cyan and Forest Green color combination with golden yellow accents... Only her natural beauty outshines her talent and added beauty. I sighed, which attracted the attention Emily had left to give.

"That was strange..." I could hear Emily say to herself. I decide to give myself up, tired of hiding from her. I decide to send her a text. That way I don't freak her out, and she knows it's me.

"Hey Em," I finally reply to her last text as well. "I'm alive!"

"Well, gee. You finally respond!" I hear Emily exclaim not knowing I'm in the room. "That doesn't mean anything though," she tries to say to herself.

"Me being alive doesn't mean anything?" I text her back.

"Where are you?" She asks. I inwardly sigh, ready to face her again.

"Here," I say. "Watching you look for me," I add.

"How long have you been here?" She asks, while still looking for me.

"A while." I reply. She finally finds me sitting in the corner.

"You've just been watching me practice?" Em asked me.

"Yeah... I didn't expect you to come here on your relaxing day. I figured I would take one too. After yesterday." I explain.

"I... Uh..." She starts, before intentionally ignoring what I said and going back to practicing. I don't know what to segway!

"You what?" I decide was simple enough.

"Don't want to think about the past. That was yesterday." Em says, as she hits another three pointer. Unbelievable.

"So... What do we do about it." I ask.

"Nothing, we forget it ever happened." She says.

"Even the part about me telling you how I felt?" I question.

"Felt about what?" She asks me.

"Um... Did you not hear? You didn't hear everything?" I ask, starting to get excited.

"Yeah, I did. I just don't know what you're talking about. You felt a lot of things yesterday. Be more specific." She asked.

"About you!" I exclaimed, making sure she knew.

"Wait, you told me you liked me yesterday?" She asked.

"Yes! Isn't that why you've been avoiding me?!" I ask.

"No, it's not." She clarifies. Kind of.

"So what was?" I ask her.

"Well, I was kind of getting frustrated with all your lies about what you were trying to hide from me. Apparently you were trying to hide a crush on me. I had no idea," She tried to pass off.

"Yes you did, or you wouldn't have known I was lying." I say. She nods modestly.

"Look, let's go back to my house and discuss this. A public youth gym probably isn't the spot for this type of talk." She says, so we walk back together just thinking. What I say to her, I don't know. I'm in uncharted territory and don't know what to do.

"So... Do you know what you want to say to me?" I ask her.

"Yeah. I just want to make it a private talk." She says. We finally arrive at her house, and she comes out a minute later in all bright colors. Obviously she wants to be in a good mood, or already is.

"Lucas, I have liked you for so long, you don't even know. If you ever wonder why I've gotten so frustrated with you over the strangest things it's because I like you back. You're just my first crush and I don't know how to handle anything like this. I'm more just scared or upset or frustrated most of the time if anything, because I just have wanted you to look me in the eyes and think about me the same way I am thinking about you. When I notice you trying to act all tough and straight faced I get upset, when I notice you trying to be all secretive with your feelings I get frustrated and when I notice you talking to other girls, it scares me, knowing that you might forget about me by the end of the day." Emily says. I look at Em confused and surprised.

"Huh? You... You have feelings too? Girls have feelings?" I ask her.

"I felt the same way about boys until you said something yesterday." She said.

"So... What am I supposed to call you now?" I ask for formal reasons.

"It depends. Where are we? Last I checked we were two friends who like each other.

"Well, I guess you still want me to ask you do you?" I ask, her shyly nodding. "Emily, would you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?" She nods, hugging me finally happy the whole ideal is wrapped up with.

"Finally!" I think to myself, as our story just begins.


	13. Practice Makes Perfect

Hey all! This has a little bit less romance than normal, and I feel like it's more about character development type things, but it's still got a good plot to it I think, and it's obviously somewhat romantically themed. Sorry if any of the terms and things are inaccurate, I just thought of this idea after gymnastics was mentioned like 5 times in my life yesterday. Anyways, here we go, and I hope you enjoy! :)

Lucas's POV:

Walking around the gym is fun, especially on Saturdays. There is always something fun to watch going on, and the best part, is the mystery of what it is! I don't know until I actually get to see it. I guess the fact that I'm only a seventh grader makes me like mysteries a little more than maybe someone older.

I get to the place where the gym is at, and head towards it. It looks like there's a basketball game going on today. Middle school girls basketball, I guess. That might be interesting! I continue walking past the signs to enter the gym, when I see a bunch of weird things I've never seen before. I don't exactly know how to describe them, because they are really weird. There's a couple of girls doing tricks on mats, and a couple others jumping between monkey bar looking things. I decide to look around, and find out that the thing they are doing is called gymnastics.

"Rotate! One spot over! Go go go!" A younger woman probably in her late twenties or early thirties commanded, as all the girls switched the (events) they were doing. The big mat looks the most interesting, so I decide to watch the girl practice. I guess her name is Natalie, according to her name tag. She attempts a couple of practice moves, before showing the older girl, I would assume is her coach. To someone who didn't know anything like me, I thought it was good. She didn't fall or make any obvious mistakes, at least that I could see.

"Natalie, make sure you keep your form on the cartwheel. Those are the easiest points in the whole performance, and you might have just lost some. Other than that, I think you are fine for now. I want you to focus on the vault. We are going to need your best performance there next tournament." The coach told her. I was a little surprised they were going so hard on the girl, but I guess she wanted her to be the best she could, which is a coach's job right? The coach again yells rotate, and so I follow the coach. She ends up going to what I guess are logically called the uneven bars to watch a girl named Valerie. She too looked very good and rehearsed with what she was doing, and I watched enjoying the routine.

"Great work, you've been improving a lot since we started putting you on high bars. You still have a lot to work on, of course, but I am happy with your progress. Keep working hard and always strive to improve." her coach told her, being extremely positive with her approach. It was interesting to see the coach change her approach for each person. Some she would go harder on and some easier, despite whether they were better or worse or not. I decided to watch a couple of girls rehearse their balance beam routines, I heard them call it. It seemed like a lot more girls struggled with that than anything, but much like Natalie with the mat (floor) it must not have been their main event. Speaking of Natalie, it was her turn to perform the vault so I decided to watch her and see what that was about. Her performance to me, once again looked great, and this time the coach agreed with me.

"Good job on the round-off. Solid balance on the finish, and very nice work on the entry. I'm excited to see your live performance, I think if you do this consistently you should be ready to go. Maybe next segment we can work on a more difficult routine." The coach told her, as Natalie smiled, thanking her. There was still one girl I hadn't seen yet. She looked really cute actually, even though I don't like saying those types of things. I decide to watch her warm up. Even though she is about mine, Valerie and Natalie's age, she was actually in a harder level, so she was still getting ready. The final event I saw Valerie and Natalie do was trampoline. They practiced all different kinds of gymnastics, but each obviously specialized in one or two different areas this early on. Natalie seemed quite unconfident on the trampoline compared to her other events, while Valerie was quite the opposite. She seemed really confident and performance ready. It brought back a lot of memories from when I was little and jumped on a trampoline to get some of my extra energy out, only she was doing quite complicated spins and rotations. After finally reaching proper height, Natalie started with basic spins, before moving into a couple of doubles, and finishing with a vertical rotation. She didn't do bad, but Valerie was impressive.

"Natalie, do you just want to skip trampoline? You don't seem really comfortable with it, and it seems like you'd be better served working on your main artistic events." Her coach said.

"Yeah, I agree. I guess I'm just not used to it, but taking the time to master it when I really want to nail my artistic performance seems like a bad idea. I'd rather focus on that and learn trampoline once my main four are solid." Natalie replied. The coach nodded, and went to talk to Valerie.

"You, were great. I want to see you move up to level nine on trampoline after the regional competition coming up. I think you'd be ready for the challenge, and I can get a couple of our advanced specialists to work with you even more on it if you'd like." The coach told her, as she seemed pretty surprised.

"Wow, that sounds great. Yeah, I would love that. The more I do it the better I'll get, especially with making it my focus now. I'm thinking about going into trampoline instead of artistic because it's so much more consistent with me." Valerie replied.

"I agree, I think it's a good decision. I'd still like you to stick to artistic just so that you get the background and extra practice with it, but I do think you should put as much effort into trampoline as possible, it seems like that's where you are going to be best at." The coach added, as Valerie and Natalie got ready to leave, before they both surprisingly came up to me.

"I don't think I've seen you here before," Valerie mentioned.

"Yeah, first time seeing this. Didn't even know what this was until I started watching you guys." I said.

"So what did you think? Good first impression?" Natalie asked.

"I'd say so. It's definitely different than anything else I've ever seen, which was pretty nice. Pretty fun to watch," I said.

"Glad you got to see us! Do you have a phone?" Valerie asked. I pulled out my cell phone and gave it to her. "Gave you our numbers. I also gave you Emily's too. She's in the next group if you want to stay and watch. We're at level 7, moving up to 8, she's doing some events at 8 and some at 9, and we are all the same age." Valerie added.

"Seventh graders?" I asked. They both nodded. "Liberty Middle School?" I asked.

"Yeah... All three of us. I'm surprised we haven't met. Maybe we have and just don't remember it or something..." Natalie said. I just shrugged, as they started walking to a different part of the gymnastics area.

"You coming? This is the intermediate room, they are doing advanced. They use the same room as the elites over here," Val explained, so I followed her.

"One of these days you are going to have to explain this all to me," I say as they both laugh. "It seems pretty complex." I add.

"It is, especially if you're new to it. You start to pick up more and more the more you are around it, especially at performances. Some of it only gymnasts really know anyways, so it's not really a spectator friendly sport." Natalie said as the advanced coach, a woman who appeared slightly older than Valerie and Natalie's coach called a meeting of the advanced group. It was pretty easy to pick out Emily. She was a little shorter than the rest, and she also looked cuter than everyone else, but that's totally subjective, of course.

"I want you all to start on your main event, then increasingly make your way harder and harder throughout practice. It builds up your confidence leading into your worst event, just the way it should be. You need to act like each event is achievable, because it is. Now, let's start. Emily, I want to see you separately since you are doing multiple levels (assuming this is possible, if it's not, pretend that it is! :D) Everyone else started doing their best events, and it showed. Everyone was doing fantastic, at least by my standards, of course most of them were sophomores or freshman in high school though, so it made sense for them to be better than the middle school group. I continued to search out Emily, when I saw her about to start the balance beam.

"I want to see you start out with the level 8 routine first, if you're solid at that I'd like to see the nine." Her coach said, as she started by doing not too much more than Valerie and Natalie did, except it seemed much more flowing. After about a minute or two of that, her coach said to try the level nine stuff, which looked much more difficult. She was still doing everything well, it just wasn't as complete as the level eight.

"I'm pretty surprised that they are letting her work on level nine balance beam already. That's a pretty big skip from eight to nine with that, and she still did everything, it's just not as consistent." Natalie said.

"Agreed, I think she should stick to level eight for now and move up next time. It didn't look as confident when it got harder," I said trying to sound smart.

"Since when have you known about gymnastics? Dang, I think you are a quick learner," Val complimented. "I agree with... Uh... What's your name?" She asked me.

"Haha, Lucas. I'm Lucas," I told her. She smiled and finished her sentence.

"Nice work. Good to see you trying and getting better at the level nine stuff. What do you think you want to do?" Her coach asked.

"I'm feeling much better with the level eight at this point. My goal is to get the highest execution score right now, and work on difficultly later. I think I'll move up after regionals." Emily suggested. Her coach nodded.

"I agree. Let's see you on vault. I know you've been working with Natalie on it, so I'm hoping you should at least be good on the eight." Her coach said, as they went to the vault station. All I knew was that she was different, in a good way. I didn't have to see any more, but I really, REALLY wanted to.

Valerie's POV:

Emily started her approach, got good air on her push off, and completed a nice spin before sticking the landing.

"Wow. One of the best level eights I've seen. Try a nine." Coach told her. Emily smiled, building up confidence, before starting a nine. She once again got off to a good start, but she couldn't complete the full double, so she just went for the 360 and took the safe route instead of potentially screwing up the 720.

"Not bad. Your entrance was a little low, which is why you couldn't finish the double. You need some more spring heading into the handstand to get more airtime and crucial extra seconds to hit the double spin. I think if we work on that more you should be able to move up to a nine in time for regionals." Emily looked a little surprised.

"Any technique suggestions? Especially on the landings?" Emily asked her coach.

"Your landings have been solid so far. I want to see your floor before I start getting on you about those. I wanted to put you in elite for floor, but they wouldn't let me change your full rank just yet." Emily looked even more surprised than before.

"Then I expect you to be hard on me." Emily encouraged, as her coach gave her a stern smile. They approached the floor square, where Emily started her performance. It started out quite slow, which seemed to work out good for her, and knowing the musical selection, I knew it would build up. She went for her first tumble and it looked phenomenal.

"Wow, what a talent," I whisper to Natalie. She smiles and nods in response still watching Emily. She does a lot of her dance routine early, before going to the corner for what looked like a reverse. Instead, she did a quick one and a half spin to face front, and did a forward tumble, immediately followed by a handstand and a reverse. It looked pretty extraordinary, even I was shocked. Natalie was just staring, while Lucas was pretty amazed at just her talent, not knowing much about the technical elements involved that she was doing so well. She then went into her 180 split, which despite a lack of height was still great, and connected some more dance elements. She decided to finish with another impressive move, a cartwheel, that turned into a reverse 360 which had great height considering the connection, and ended with a very strong dismount. I wasn't really that into the floor though, so I didn't really know about too much of the requirements and things, but execution wise, it looked impeccable.

"That was great. I'd like to change a couple of things before regionals, but for the next meet, that would be a brilliant performance. I'd really like to see you get some connection bonuses, and I think we could increase the difficulty some. You were hitting some D and E moves no problem. I'd like to see you do some more F and G level, and if possible even H moves. The goal is always to be able to get to I's. I'd love for you to be in the 16's by regionals, you could get into junior championships with that kind of a performance. For now, I like what you are doing. You looked calm, smooth, rhythmically engaged, and it flowed really well. Keep it up, I think if you keep working at it, you might go a lot farther than you ever could have thought." The coach spoke to her.

"So what do you think I should do next?" Emily asked. "With floor, of course?" She added. The coach thought for a second, before answering.

"Consistency. You are already putting up fantastic performances way beyond your group. I still think you belong in the elite group on floor, and could easily compete with if not surpass a lot of them. The only thing holding you back from 16 scores right now is difficulty and connections. Once you get to the elite levels, a lot of them focus on adding the connection bonuses for the higher start value. If you did that, and could get your start level to a 7, I know you could still get over a nine and get a 16 plus. Unfortunately, getting a 10 is not going to happen with anyone. Thats just the way the sport is. If you give a six difficulty, that would be enough for you to win everything here, but I think you are better than that. I know you can challenge yourself, and I know you can do it. Getting a 16.1 is better than getting a 16." Her coach reminded her.

"So if I can go G, F, F, E on Acro, E, D, D, C on Dance and add two double connection points and a single connection point, I could get up to a 7 difficulty and would only need an execution greater than a 9 to get over a 16?" Emily questioned to herself.

"If you are willing to take on that challenge. As I said, I want you to focus on nailing your regular routine now. I'd love to see a mid to high nine from you in the next meet, but by regionals, if you get up to a 7 and 9+, you could make Juniors assuming you execute everything else at a solid level also." Her coach further explained.

"Alright, I'm assuming you want to see my uneven bars too?" She asked.

"Maybe I can help some. I know it's your weak point." Her coach said. Emily looked stressed heading into uneven bars. They aren't exactly my favorite either, because there is so much strength involved. The good thing about unevens though is that it's so basic. It's the one event you can get by on by doing a non-difficult routine. She performed a relatively basic routine, electing to perform her more difficult moves on the lower to higher bar changeover. This was obviously her problem area, as it seemed like every time she tried something more challenging she would lose her confidence and it would look stiff.

"Stop trying to overthink things. You're worrying so much about not being able to do something that you aren't doing things right. You know that mindset you get into on floor? You need to carry that into bars. Everything you do that's more difficult looks really tight, and the form isn't exactly your strong point. Your twists weren't full, and your jumps didn't get enough air all the time." Her coach told her quite truthfully.

"So, what am I doing right?" Emily asked, looking for some positive.

"I really like your form on the handstand. Your vertical positioning is quality form, and your hand work has been a consistent plus. Your reverses looked clean and in rhythm, which was nice to see. Your problem with bars is more the flight elements than anything. It just needs consistent effort and ability will come with that in time. I'm sure once you make it a focus you will do just fine." The coach told her. It was still so incredible to witness her talent, even though she wasn't that great at bars yet, I know she will get there, and it won't take her long to do it. She saw us watching her, so we exchanged smiles.

Lucas's POV:

After we watched a few other gymnasts perform a couple of times, I went back to watching Emily train. It was pretty great, just watching her be so serious and meticulous with every move she did, especially on floor. You could still see her love for it though, through all the seriousness, work, and focus. I don't know what's up with her. It's just... There's something different. I feel like I could pick her out in a room filled with hundreds of people. Like a whole new indescribable feeling is going through my body. I can't take my eyes off her, rather, I don't want to. I watch as she smiles after getting her routine exactly how she wanted to, before doing it again, and feeling confident enough to change events to balance beam, then vault, then uneven bars. After her practice finished and she got a little bit of a break to relax, she decided to talk to Val, Natalie and I.

"Hey Val, Hey Natalie, and I don't think I've seen you around here before..." She says, obviously not knowing who I was.

"I'm Lucas. I just decided to stop by when I saw the doors open to the practice room." I explained. She smiled, before going back to talking to Valerie and Natalie.

Emily's POV:

"What did you guys think? Did you see my floor?" I asked Valerie and Natalie. I didn't know how much Lucas knew about gymnastics with it being his first time watching and all. The fact that he would go in and talk to Valerie and Natalie was pretty interesting though. It hit me the right way.

"I thought it was pretty good, especially your floor. Looked like your in the 9's for the all-around for sure!" Valerie complimented, I slightly blushed, for no reason whatsoever.

"It looked good to me. Hopefully you get to move up soon," Natalie added.

"I don't really know if I'm ready to move up yet. My bars aren't too great, and my vault could use a little bit of work, the main reason I'm in advanced to begin with is because of floor. Without that, I'd be right there with you guys to be honest," I replied.

"Regardless, Em, you're fantastic. Keep getting better and you'll do fine!" Val said.

"Thanks, and I'm aware," I replied laughing slightly. I noticed Lucas paying attention to what was happening, so I figured I'd question him a little bit more and see what was up with him. "So, what did you think? First good impression?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I'd say so. Even though I didn't know what was going on until they explained a couple things to me." Val and Natalie giggled walking slightly ahead of us.

"You get used to it, the more you watch it. Especially at competitions and things." I told him. He smiled.

"That's what Valerie and Natalie told me. They pretty much gave me a lot of the speel." He told me. I laughed a little, of course they did.

"So... Did they tell you anything about me?" I asked him, wondering what they were talking about while I was practicing.

"Not very much. Just that you were good and talented and you like floor." He says, causing me to blush. Not because I like him or anything...

"No, no! I mean about me, not about gymnastics and all." I expand.

"Oh. Uh... Not much?" He says. "I think they are leaving talking about yourself up to you." He adds. Ugh, they think I like him. How would they know?! I get my phone out, and load up a group message with both Val and Natalie.

"Why do you think I like him?" I ask them through text, getting back to Lucas, before I see the two girls running ahead of us laughing. Sigh... Nothing I can do.

"They left awfully quick... What did you say to them?" He asked.

"Oh, nothing... I just asked them why they did that." I explained. He looked confused, which is probably a good thing.

"Okay then..." He said, before a slightly... Dare I say awkward silence. It's only SLIGHTLY awkward! Oh, and I still don't like him- Val and Natalie! I just don't know what to say is all...

"So, I'm sorry if this is awkward, I don't really talk to boys very often, especially unplanned." I try to explain. He laughs a little.

"No worries, I normally don't talk to girls like this, or rather, like you, very often either." He responds. Like this? Like me? Huh?

"What do you mean by that?" I ask trying to get clarification.

"You're different than anyone else I've talked to. I feel like you actually will listen to me and I don't want to bore you with jibberish." He said.

"Ah... I see." I smirk a little bit. At least the silence isn't as awkward now. It's more... Comfortable than before.

"What was the smirk for?" He asks.

"No reason in particular. Why?" I ask.

"Don't know. Just most people have a reason to do things like that." He says.

"Well, I can tell you this right now, I'm not a normal person." I tell him.

"Maybe that's why I like you so much more than anyone else!" He accidentally spills. I finally got it out of him!


	14. Hope For Humanity

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div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"Emily's POV:/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"Yeah, Lucas is definitely a good friend of mine. We just... I don't know. I guess I feel like I connect with him. Our views on the world are so similar, we could talk about our dreams for the world, and you'd think it was like we were a couple or something. Did I say that?! Oh well, anyways, we both have such good personalities, I mean, we have our fair share of disagreements, but... We have the same goal. The same ideal. We both know what we want the world to give back to us. Hope./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"Lucas's POV: /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"You see, Emily is like me, in that we both want what's best for the world. We are the type of people everyone says the world needs more of. I know that there's problems going on around us, and things that need to be fixed, and even things as much as we want to we can't ever change, yet there's just something there. Something I feel even more when I'm with her, something great. It's almost like... Hope./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"Both:/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"We both have hope for humanity. I guess that's why we are such great friends./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"Emily's POV:/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"BEEP BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP BEEP! Ugh... My alarm gives me a headache!/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Turn off you darn thing! I hate you with a passion!" I tell it, as I slam the off button. /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""How am I going to make the world a better place today?" I ask myself, as I take a minute to think about things I can do on just another normal random Monday morning./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Eh, I'll make it better for myself today by getting 15 minutes of extra rest, not like I have to look good for anyone but myself." I say aloud to myself again. After trying to get back to bed for fifteen minutes, I decide the idea is useless and will never work, so I just get up and check my texts. Obviously, I got one from Lucas. He texts me every morning, and I love it. Almost always brings my mood up./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Hey Em! Happy morning! Horoscope from me for the day: You are as bright as the morning sun. Make sure to shine your light on someone else today." He told me. Huh, that's a good one. I decide to start off my day by getting ready for school. I start thinking about school, and for no reason whatsoever, my mind automatically shoots straight to Lucas. He's in 5/6 of my classes, but other than that there's no special reason to think of him. Oh, but I should text him back. Maybe that's why./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Thanks! :) I will try" I reply. I scroll through my millions of emoji options I could send, and for some reason the green heart sticks out to me. I keep on fighting back against myself arguing he would take it the wrong way, but my body doesn't listen to me and pushes send before I can take it back. Sigh, at least he's a boy and is too oblivious to care. I continue fighting with myself, before realizing that this should be a non issue anyways. I mean, it's not like I like him or something. I mean, that's just ludicrous as licorice! I then get another text, hoping it's a response from Lucas, but instead it's from Danny. What could he want this early?/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""You realized you just sent Lucas a green heart, right?" He asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Yes, and?" I reply./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""You do realize what that means, right?" He asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Yeah, it's a heart, which shows care, in the color green, my favorite color." I text./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""It means you like someone but they don't like you back. How do I explain THAT to Lucas?" I thought girls were the ones who overthought these things... Ugh.../div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""I don't know! I don't know why it matters! Just tell him what I said, from my perspective, it's a heart in my favorite color. That's it!" This turned out to be much more of a hassle than I thought it would be. Of course, this gets me thinking about myself, why did that stand out? Could it have been because if it's meaning? No, I don't love anyone... Except my family, Val and Natalie but that's it. Isn't it? I mean, I could never LOVE Lucas. That's just impossible. It could never happen. I mean, falling in love with your best guy friend? Then trying to get him to be your BOYfriend?! That never happens. That's not a thing. That can't happen. It doesn't exist./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Em? You've been walking back and forth for a half hour, what's up?" Val says as she somehow got into my room./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""How'd you get in here? And why are you here so early?" I ask./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""First of all, you only have five minutes until we should be gone. Second, your door was open. Third, what is taking you so long and why are you just walking around doing nothing?" Val asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Oops. Maybe thinking about why love isn't real should not be done in the morning..." I mumble, but Val hears me anyways./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Wait, what?! Tell me in five minutes when we leave and are done getting ready. I've got to hear this." Val says, as she lets me finish getting everything ready for school, and five minutes later I was in the car getting asked question after question./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""So what happened?" She started with./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Well, I got my daily morning text from Lucas, and I responded with a thanks and a green heart." Val smiled boldly./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Why did you choose a green heart?" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""I thought a green heart meant caring, and of course green is my favorite color. I didn't realize it meant unreciprocated love until Danny asked me what I was thinking." /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Danny saw it? Oh, this is getting good... Keep going!" She exclaims./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""So I thought about my life for a minute, or I guess 25 minutes, and bam, now I'm here." I explain myself to her, not letting her too far into my secret./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""So, what's the big thing you're thinking about?" She asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Why I really chose a green emoji." I say as Val gasps./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""You love Lucas?!" She exclaims./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""That's what I was thinking about, yes. My conclusion though, is that I can't. It's purely impossible. A girl does not simply fall in love with her best male friend, and I would think I would know if I loved him. I really don't think a crush, let alone unreciprocated love on my best friend other than you and Natalie is a good idea right now." I tell her./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Em, you're leaving out one key thing. Well, technically two, but more so one than the other. The small one, is what if he likes you back?" Val asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Then that's great, I'll deal with it when the time comes, although I don't think back was used in the right context there." I replied./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Which leads to my second point. You can't control who you like, sadly. If you like Lucas, you like Lucas and there's no changing it by yourself. The only real way to change it is if you love him, or if something happens and you get mad at him and lose your feelings for him or vice Versa." She explains./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""I know... I just wish it were easy. At least, easier." I say back./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""It only gets worse. The trick, is making yourself think it gets better." I laugh./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""How can I possibly do that? How is me- oh great, a text..." I instantly get slightly nervous at the thought it could be from Lucas again. Of course this time it is. Hooray.../div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""So, who's it from?" Val asks curious./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Lucas..." I respond. Val gives me a questioning look./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""You say that so disappointed. Isn't it a good thing?" She asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""I suppose so, I mean, especially with it being something so simple as how much time I'm going to have to talk before class starts." I reply./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Say it depends, ask him why and see what he says." Val informs. I guess I've got nothing better to say. It should freak him out a little bit I suppose./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Alright... Just sent it." I let her know, as she smirked. I'm starting to get suspicious./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Why are you smiling like that? It's creepily suspicious." I ask./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Oh, I don't know. I mean, it's not like he's going to proclaim his love for you or anything when he wants to talk to you..." I lightly slap her arm./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Hey! No teasing. You know that's not going to happen." I reply, as all she responds with is a smile./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""I guess we will just have to wait and see. Maybe he wants you to proclaim your love for him? That might be it-" I cut Val off./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Once again, not happening!" I say. She just laughs./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""You never know..." She adds still smirking. Sigh, I'm ultra suspicious of her now./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""What did you do. You are acting way too suspicious right now!" I demand./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Oh, I didn't do anything. It was all his idea." She says. Say WHAT?!/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Uh... What's all his idea? Why do you know about this? What did you do? I'm texting Natalie." I say, as I ask her what's going on./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""I, nor she, will tell you anything. I thought you liked surprises. Especially with your birthday coming up." Oh goodness. Lucas is doing something romantic. For me. For my birthday. This is a joke. It has to be./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""What does my birthday have anything to do with this? Why Lucas? What-" Val cuts me off./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Patience is a virtue, my dear friend. Learn and practice it." UGH. Valerie is getting annoying. I get a response from Natalie./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Nothing really. I'm just glad we are getting close to break. You?" Natalie replies. Why.../div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""I'm trying to ask you and Val what's going on with Lucas. For all I know he could have this great huge elaborate scheme to propose to me or something, I don't know." I reply back. Seconds later I hear Valerie laughing. Now what?!/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""What's so funny..." I ask Val./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Nothing, it's an inside joke between Natalie and I." She says./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""That I'm not in on?" I ask./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Yeah, only us two get it. It kind of happened before you moved here." She says./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Oh. Is it something Lucas related?" I ask./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Eh... Not entirely." Val says./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""What's that supposed to mean?" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Exactly what I said, not entirely."/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""What the heck is EMHLO" I ask as Lucas sent me in the text./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""What do you mean?" She asks slightly worried./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Lucas just said he wants me to ask you and Natalie what EMHLO means." She laughs./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Okay, now that's funny. One minute..." Val says texting someone./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Who are you texting now?" I ask./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Natalie. Do you have any important text history with Lucas?" She asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Not really, just a lot of chatter. I've been thinking about deleting-" Val cuts me off and takes my phone. /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Great, give me five seconds..." She says, typing something on my phone. Ten seconds later, she hands me my phone back, and the conversation with Lucas is deleted./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""What did you do?" I ask./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""I told him what EMHLO" abbreviated. Well, actually what the whole entire phrase was first, and then the not abbreviated version of the whole thing." /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""You can't tell me, why?"/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""It's not relevant to you."/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""It's relevant enough to me that I can tell it has my initials, you used my number to text it, and-" I get cut off./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Fine. The shortened version is Em hates life obviously." Valerie says. That's a lie!/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Um... Why would I hate life. Other than you not telling me about Lucas stuff.../div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Okay! We are at school now! I can tell you everything without you hating me." Val says. I instantly give her my annoyed irritated stare. span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""What! I was just protecting you and teasing you! It didn't do any harm!" I demand an explanation. "Well, you see let's start from the beginning." Oh gosh... /span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;" /span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;"PART TWO:/span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;"Still Emily's POV-/span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;"I walk in the school to see something I thought had been erased from everyone's mind. The first day I moved here./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""First of all, where is everyone? Second of all, why remind me of this?" I ask./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""First answer, there's no school today, it's a Monday of break. Second answer, we are starting from the beginning." Aw MAN! They hacked my alarm system.../span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""You set me up?! Not fair! And did you say we?!" I ask. Val smiles./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Yes, and yes. Now, let's start from the beginning." I facepalm. I did this to myself./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""The first day you got here, you met Natalie, Lucas, Danny and I. One of the first things you said was, Hi, I'm Emily. Are you guys like in a relationship or something?" Val said mocking me. I blush, remembering the whole thing. Val smiled./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""After finding out him and Natalie weren't a thing, you continued to talk to him, and ended up becoming friends after a short time (the memory popped up of us running between stores in the pouring rain laughing) and then closer friends (the memory of the sleepover all six of us had... Sigh.) until this summer." She says, stopping for a minute./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Why did you stop?" I ask./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Oh, this is the good part. It's for dramatic effect. This summer, you started showing feelings for Lucas." I gasp./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Did not!" I start./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Reflect. The first day of summer vacation you started writing his name on a piece of paper because you were bored. By the end of the first month, you managed to create an OC not very different than him, and by the end of summer, you had managed to lose focus around him."/span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""This proves nothing!" I complain./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Oh, but at the beginning of the year..." My eyes widen./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""No... No no no. No. No." I start, begging not to go on./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Let's revisit, shall we?" I start to beg for her mercy, knowing she was going to prove me wrong./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""You started doing more with just him, you started texting each other to start and end each other's days, and you even started to-" I keep begging./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Stop, stop, stop! You can't go on! I will not let you! This is tyranny! Treason! Abuse of the first amendment! Cruel and unusual punishment!" I call for./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Holding hands." She finishes./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""It's a FRIENDLY gesture! And he must partake!" I cry./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""You reached first, and you know not only did you want him to accept, but you would have accepted just out of kindness." I stop moving forward./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""What are you trying to do?! Crush my soul for eternity?!" I ask./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""I'm trying to show you what lead up to Op. EMILWL" /span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Which is..." I ask./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Operation Emily's in love with Lucas." I sigh. Oh great. They got me./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""So?! You can't prove anything!" I claim./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""We already did. Ten times. After Operation EMILWL was a proven success, we decided to set up operation EMHLON with the guys. EMHLON is what Lucas was referring to, and that stands for Em Hearts Lucas Officially Now. This is when we first noticed that you were falling in love with him." She said./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Was not!" I claim again./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Once again, we covered this. One more time, and I get really specific for you, you won't like that. So let me talk. Anyways, after that was obviously a very clear success, I pushed for Mission PGLG, but Natalie denied before I could even ask Lucas, instead, electing for this, project EMBDR or Em's Birthday Reflection. The goal is obviously to get you to reflect on your feelings for Lucas, and to get you to realize you truly love him. Even if he is your best friend, even if he is a boy, and you are both young teenagers, you can still both fall in love with each other." Val explained./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);"span style="line-height: 16.5pt;""Fine! Fine! I hate this so much, I truly do, and I never want to remember any of the stupid things I did until this point ever again! I know I've lived my life the wrong way but I can't change it now. I unfortunately am a girl who likes a boy, okay, you both do too. So what? What does this change?" I ask. Em smiles, and Natalie comes out from behind me and they both pick me up and escort me to the car, which was still waiting there for us after I was told that we didn't have school./span/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Now, we are going to Lucas's house, and you are telling him your feelings. If you do it right, your relationship status should change, and everything should be better." Val instructs. Well, this is not how I planned on this going./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Why doesn't he have to tell me?!" I ask./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""He has his own troubles with the boys. Don't worry about him. Worry about being the fixer, not the saver." Val tells me. After about ten more minutes, mostly in silence because of the sudden change of events, my nervousness, and trying to find the right words to say to him, we finally arrive back at our houses./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Alright, I'll be right outside the door. Good luck." Val says, before pushing me into Lucas's room and leaving me alone with him, locked in with no way out now./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""L-Lucas... Look... I really don't know what to say. I... I guess I just don't know what I feel like I want to say." I start. "I... This is hard." I try continuing, but I can't, it's just taking a lot of effort to get through. Lucas approaches me and hugs me. I accept. "Thanks. Okay, I really am not prepared for this, at all." I admit./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Good, I don't want to hear something prepared. I want to know what you truly want to tell me." /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""I... I... I'm too scared." I was so close! /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""What are you scared of? What's the worst thing that can happen? You know I'll always be here for you. Just like you have been for me since you moved here." He said./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Aw, thanks." I say smiling a little. "The answer to your first two questions is the same. I'm scared you won't like me back. The same way I do." Lucas's eyes widened. /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Why, why would you think that?" Well, that's not what I expected./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""You're a boy... Boys don't like girls like girls like boys. Especially girls who aren't romantic, or their type, or whatever." He sighs./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""I have zero romance skill, and don't care about that. What I care about is that you have been one of the best friends I could have the last couple of years, and I know for a fact what you said about boys not liking girls like that is wrong, because I know I like you like that. The type thing? I don't care about that either. Whatever type of girl I like, you define it, there's certainly nobody else like you out there. If there were, the world would be a much better place now than it is." Lucas says./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""You like me too?" I ask./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18px; line-height: 22px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392);""Don't think you are going to have to use a green heart ever again." Lucas tells me. We hug, then decide to kiss before falling into each other's arms for a happily ever after only matched by Disney fairy tales./div 


	15. Tree Time

div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Tree Time:/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Lucas and Emily were sitting in a tree like all 6th grade neighbors decide to do. Once they became comfortable around each other, or at least as much as they could be, they did it all the time. The two kids would discuss anything in the tree that they wanted to or felt like, just to talk and have fun with each other. The things they never talked about, however, were romance, and things that would make them fight. /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"That would change one day, when Lucas got assigned to work with Valerie on a science project, and Emily had to work with Danny./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Lucas, be honest. Do you like Val?" Em asked him out of nowhere./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Why... Why would you think that?" He answered./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""You do, don't you?" Emily smirked. "You like Val." She started teasing./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""I thought we weren't going to talk about these things up here?" He attempts./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Lucas likes Val! Lucas likes Val!" Emily kept teasing him./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""I don't like her, okay?!" Lucas informs, but it doesn't convince Emily. "I don't like anyone!" He adds, just sounding even less convincing in Emily's mind./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Well, surely you must like someone... Right?" Emily asked him trying to clarify./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Nah, I'm only a sixth grade boy. I'm too young for that stuff." He tries./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""You're too young to like someone... That's new... Sure you are..." Emily eye rolls dramatically./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""I am! I won't like someone until I'm 16 or 18. I'm sure of it!" Lucas said, moreso trying to convince himself than Emily, who was not buying anything he said./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Wait, so Anthony and Danny can like someone before then but you can't?" She asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""If he wants to he can, yeah." Lucas answers. Val just laughs at him./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""You think things are that simple?" Em asks, laughing but very serious at the same time. "I'm afraid that's not how things work. It's much different than that in the real world." She added./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Really? You don't just get to choose who you like?" Lucas asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""I mean, you kind of can, but you can never choose not to like someone you do." She replies./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""So... I can't say I don't like anyone, even if I don't?" He asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Nope, because nobody will believe you. Including me. I know you like someone." Em says./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Do I? Who then?" Lucas asks, trying to make Emily force her hand, but she's not biting./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""I'm pretty sure it's either Valerie or Natalie, I'm just not sure which one yet." Em said./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""No it's not! I don't even know what it feels like to like someone! How do I like someone without even knowing what it means or how it feels like?" He asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Look, it's complicated, okay, and it's not something I can just explain to you. You have to recognize it when you feel it. It's a deeply rooted emotion." Emily explains./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""I don't like anyone then. Or are you trying to confuse me?" He asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Yes you do! Every boy that's over the age of five does!" Em informs./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Five? You've liked someone since you were five?" Lucas asks shocked./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""This isn't about me, right now..." Emily tries to change the subject./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Five?! That was the year you moved here..." Emily starts getting nervous./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Um, now is not a good time to discuss this..." Emily says./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""You've liked someone for that long and have managed to keep it a secret?" Lucas asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Even if I have, what does that mean..." Emily asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""It means... I don't know." Emily smirked/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Gotcha! I know why it matters." Lucas was suspicious. /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""You can read my mind?" Emily nodded./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""It matters because you've done it." Lucas fakes shock./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""No I haven't! You have no proof!" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Oh, but I do." Emily immediately closes the windows and sits in front of the ladder so Lucas can't escape, and nobody can look in and see them or hear what they are talking about./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Uh... Um... What's happening?" Lucas asked./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""I'm putting you in lockdown mode so I can work this out. I'm down to three options."/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Three options? For what?" Lucas asks./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Yes. Me, Val, and Natalie, for who you like. Now let's do this one at a time." Em said. "Let's start with Natalie. What do you you like about her."/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Eh, I don't really talk to her too much and don't know a lot about her really."/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""We will come back to it. Val. Go." Emily demanded./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""You're doing yourself last?" Lucas asked. Emily hinted at a smile./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Yes. Val. Go."/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Okay, um... She's nice, smart, I can talk to her, I've known her for a while..."/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Dislikes?" Em asks Lucas, trying to get a read on him./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Uh... Not much, I mean, she's pretty normal to me, good friend," Lucas said./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Good enough. My turn! Do me now." Emily requests, eagerly. Lucas puts his knees up to his chest and his head down, trying to form himself into a little ball./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Okay, Uh... Um... You're hard to talk to... You make me really nervous and scared for some reason, You're better than me at everything and make me jealous," Lucas starts./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Yeah, uh huh, okay, sure. All negatives. First. Even though I said positives. Anything else bad you'd like to tell me?" Emily asked sassily./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Uh, not that I can think of, no." Lucas said, still scared she might catch him./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Okay, so what are the positives." Emily asked, trying to force the truth out of him./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""You're intelligent, talented, caring, helpful, cute, and any other related words." Lucas rushed./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Um, can you, slow that down a little... I want to hear all the nice things you said about me."/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""No. I said them once. That was good enough." Lucas said, Emily growls, and Lucas, even more frightful than before, goes to the corner and curls up. Emily scoots closer to him./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Lucas?" Emily asks extremely sweetly. Lucas looks up, as Emily smiles brightly. She tilts his head up to look her in the eyes. Lucas scrunches, closing his eyes because he can't stand to look at her. Emily notices this, and knowing officially that he likes her, kisses him. Lucas instantly changes from scared and protective to overly relaxed and collapsed./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Woah. Um... Yeah, that was a real thing." Emily was the first to talk a few minutes later./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Okay, um... I think I'm in love." Lucas said./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""About time." Emily said./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""I never said with who!" Lucas teased. Emily eye rolled, and they were both glad Emily closed everything up. It would just be them two alone. Happy, together./div 


End file.
